SB    275 


-t 


THE  PARISH  THEATRE 


THE  PARISH  THEATRE 

A  BRIEF   ACCOUNT  OF   ITS   RISE,   ITS 
PRESENT  CONDITION,  AND  ITS  PROSPECTS 

TO   WHICH   IS   ADDED 

A  DESCRIPTIVE    LIST   OF   ONE   HUNDRED   CHOICE  PLAYS 
SUITABLE  FOR  THE  PARISH  THEATRE 


BY 

REV.  JOHN  TALBOT  SMITH,  LL.D. 


LONGMANS,  GREEN  AND  CO. 

FOURTH  AVENUE  &  SOxn  STREET,  NEW  YORK 

39  PATERNOSTER  ROW,   LONDON 

BOMBAY,  CALCUTTA,  AND  MADRAS 

1917 


COPYRIGHT,  1917,  BY 
LONGMANS,  GREEN  AND  CO. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  A  NEW  INSTITUTION 1 

II.  ITS  ADVENT  IN  AMERICA 8 

III.  PRESENT  CONDITIONS  IN  THE  PARISH  THEATRE 15 

IV.  THE  NEED  OF  ORGANIZATION 22 

V.  THE  PASSION  PLAY  IN  AMERICA 31 

VI.  A  FORECAST 40 

A  LIST  OP  PLAYS 47 

DRAMAS 48 

PLAYS  FOR  MALES  ONLY 73 

PLAYS  FOR  FEMALES  ONLY 78 

FARCES 80 

MUSICAL  FARCES 82 

READY  REFERENCE  LIST 87 


THE  PARISH  THEATRE 


CHAPTER  I 
A  NEW  INSTITUTION 

Most  people  will  be  astonished,  and  not  a  few 
scandalized,  at  the  title  of  this  booklet.  Parish  and 
theatre  are  contradictory  terms  for  many;  to  associate 
them  may  sound  like  flat  blasphemy.  Perhaps  this  is 
the  first  occasion  for  using  the  phrase,  The  Parish 
Theatre.  Yet  the  institution  itself  exists,  has  been  in 
existence,  in  this  country  for  half  a  century  at  least, 
in  the  old  world,  off  and  on  perhaps  since  parishes 
began  to  be;  but  it  had  no  particular  name,  and  be- 
cause of  that  fact  perhaps  few  people  were  aware  of 
its  existence.  Now  that  it  is  properly  baptized,  with 
its  name  inscribed  in  the  register,  its  personality  may 
take  on  proportions. 

It  will  be  recognized  at  once  by  the  experienced  as 
a  department  of  another  institution  known  as  the 
Amateur  Theatre.  Within  the  last  thirty  years  most 
Americans  have  become  acquainted  with  the  amateur 
theatre,  either  as  amateur  actors  or  the  admiring 
audience.  This  is  not  to  speak  flippantly.  Actually 


2  THE  PARISH  THEATRE 

the  amateur  theatre  fills  a  large  and  important  place 
in  a  million  communities.  It  trains  actors,  dramatists 
and  managers  for  the  professional  stage,  has  its  own 
drama  and  audiences  and  methods,  and  makes  con- 
siderable money.  In  the  early  ages  it  made  the  soil 
out  of  which  the  modern  drama  grew.  Even  in  our 
sophisticated  time,  the  professional  theatre,  grown 
stale  through  use,  convention  and  commercialism, 
returns  to  the  amateur  institution  to  drink  of  the  pure, 
original  spring,  to  be  renewed  and  rejuvenated;  and 
afterwards  goes  forth,  like  an  old  sport  from  the  baths 
of  Nauheim  or  Hot  Springs,  to  become  as  dissolute 
and  hopeless  as  before. 

To  make  light  of  the  amateur  theatre  is  to  affront 
the  origins.  It  is  true  that  in  the  amateur  drama  pistols 
fail  to  go  off  at  the  right  moment,  and  the  villains  are 
put  to  it  to  die  a  proper  death  before  their  admiring 
friends;  we  have  all  seen  the  hero,  who  should  have 
been  shot  from  the  tower,  fall  upon  his  own  sword 
and  die  a  shameful  death  because  the  gun  inside 
would  not  go  off;  we  have  all  heard  the  treasure  flung 
into  the  lake,  as  it  missed  the  water  tank,  fall  with 
a  dull  thud  on  the  planking,  while  the  nervous  actor 
exclaimed,  "  it  is  safe  in  the  bosom  of  the  sea  forever  "; 
we  have  seen  wigs  come  off  with  cavalier  hats  in  the 
presence  of  the  queen,  and  gorgeous  moustachios 
adhere  to  the  cheek  of  the  lady  saluted;  one  may  laugh 
at  these  accidents,  but  one  may  not  laugh  at  the  ama- 
teur theatre  and  its  ardent  supporters. 

In  the  first  place,  it  has  a  long  and  curious  history. 


A  NEW  INSTITUTION  3 

Although  there  are  no  documents  to  support  the  state- 
ment, it  is  likely  that  amateur  drama  began  with 
amateur  man,  that  is,  when  Adam  and  Eve  and  their 
descendants  had  their  first  tussle  with  a  contradictory 
world.  Life  is  strange  enough  now  after  an  experience 
of  thousands  of  years!  What  must  it  not  have  been 
when  entirely  new!  And  since  humor  is  innate  in 
man,  and  mimicry  its  first  and  most  natural  expres- 
sion, the  amateur  drama  probably  began  with  the 
human  race.  The  first  parents  told  the  story  of  their 
life  in  Eden,  and  the  amateur  dramatists  and  actors 
turned  it  into  a  play  for  the  benefit  of  the  old  folks. 

In  this  fashion  the  drama  began  among  the  peoples 
who  kept  records.  When  the  first  Christians  under- 
took the  abolition  of  the  professional  stage  among 
the  Greeks  and  Romans,  they  found  the  task  impossible. 
The  people  would  not  give  up  the  pleasures  of  the 
theatre.  It  took  five  hundred  years  and  the  invasion 
of  the  northern  barbarians  to  annihilate  the  ancient 
stage.  The  Christian  leaders  then  fought  the  profes- 
sional theatre  with  the  amateur  theatre.  They  founded 
a  Christian  stage  of  a  highly  religious  character, 
wrote  plays  for  it,  trained  both  actors  and  audiences, 
and  thus  made  the  amateur  theatre  an  institution. 
This  historic  beginning  entitles  the  amateur  theatre 
at  all  times  to  respect. 

Out  of  this  institution  sprang  the  theatre  of  the 
Middle  Ages.  No  one  is  ignorant  of  the  process  by 
which  the  professional  stage  came  into  existence. 
The  famous  miracle  and  morality  plays,  the  plays  of 


4  THE  PARISH  THEATRE 

the  ancient  guilds,  colleges  and  other  corporate  bodies, 
belong  to  the  amateur  theatre.  It  is  not  necessary 
to  discuss  the  matter,  the  books  are  so  full  of  it.  I 
just  wish  to  prove  the  respectable  antiquity  of  the 
amateur  institution,  now  so  looked  down  upon  by 
the  professional,  and  so  little  esteemed  by  the  mass 
of  the  people  that  they  hardly  recognize  its  existence. 
It  is  barely  tolerated,  as  an  indoor  sport  for  a  certain 
class  of  people. 

With  its  antiquity  and  its  persistence,  in  spite  of 
ridicule,  the  amateur  theatre  deserves  attention  and 
study.  Why  has  it  been  so  persistent?  With  the 
professional  theatre  in  every  town,  with  the  motion 
picture  drama  so  universal  and  cheap,  how  does  the 
amateur  theatre  continue  to  hold  its  own,  to  lose  its 
moustachios  and  wigs,  to  have  its  guns  kill  the  wrong 
man  or  miss  fire,  and  to  attract  thousands  to  its  ser- 
vice? Because  the  human  race  loves  to  act,  or  loves 
the  art  of  mimicry,  just  as  much  today  as  in  the  time 
of  Noah.  It  is  a  form  of  recreation,  what  the  wits 
call  an  indoor  sport,  which  some  people  like  to  perform 
and  others  like  to  see.  It  is  irrepressible.  For  many 
profound  reasons  I  am  inclined  to  think  it  is  provi- 
dential. 

The  regular  theatre  has  outlived  the  condemnation 
of  churchmen  as  lofty  and  profound  as  Bossuet,  who 
practically  condemned  all  forms  of  the  drama,  unless 
those  which  portrayed  virtue.  He  was  afraid  the 
virus  of  life,  sin,  would  secure  a  double  influence  if 
the  drama  portrayed  life.  His  fear  was  not  misplaced, 


A  NEW  INSTITUTION  5 

but  the  corrective  lay  not  in  the  abolition  of  the  drama, 
but  in  its  proper  direction.  Time  has  proved  that  the 
institution  called  the  Theatre  is  ineradicable.  The 
people  take  it  up  spontaneously.  Mimicry  is  natural 
and  spontaneous.  It  is  the  root  of  the  drama.  It  is 
the  acting  as  well  as  the  telling  of  the  story. 

All  over  Europe  since  1850  the  amateur  theatre 
has  experienced  a  revival.  Lovers  of  acting,  of  dra- 
matic writing,  of  stage  production,  have  combined  to 
present  plays  which  never  could  have  found  a  place 
in  the  professional  theatre.  Audiences  have  patron- 
ized them  because  they  liked  that  sort  of  drama. 
The  professional  stage  has  become,  through  commer- 
cialism and  other  limitations,  exceedingly  narrow  and 
stiff.  It  seems  to  be  in  the  hands  of  managers  who 
are  built  on  the  model  of  the  famous  man-milliners 
of  Paris.  They  are  given  to  variety  rather  than  dra- 
matic merit.  They  follow  the  crude  tastes  of  a  public 
which  never  knows  what  it  wants,  except  to  be  pleased 
or  dazzled  like  children.  The  professional  drama  there- 
fore becomes  monotonous  in  its  sensationalism.  Its 
fashions  have  a  certain  run,  and  while  the  run  is  on 
nothing  else  can  get  before  the  public. 

At  one  time  it  is  romantic  costume  drama,  at  an- 
other realistic  of  the  Zola  type,  then  drama  in  which 
crime  and  criminals  are  the  substance,  again  domestic 
drama  of  a  foolish  sentimentality.  Immense  fortunes 
have  been  made  with  plays  of  each  type.  Conse- 
quently speculators  and  adventurers  have  entered  the 
field,  and  the  same  methods  as  distinguish  the  money 


6  THE  PARISH  THEATRE 

market  and  the  food  market  are  used  to  corner  the 
dramatic  supply.  One  set  of  men  secures  a  chain  of 
theatres  from  New  York  to  California,  and  levies 
taxes  on  plays  and  players.  In  the  vaudeville  business 
for  example  the  criminal  methods  of  the  trusts  have 
reduced  the  rank  and  file  of  the  players  to  the  con- 
dition of  near-slaves. 

This  stiffness  and  narrowness  of  commercialism, 
however,  have  helped  in  the  revival  of  the  amateur 
drama.  In  Europe  all  kinds  of  theatres  have  sprung 
into  existence.  Paris  has  two  in  particular  which  cater 
to  the  tastes  of  children  and  young  people  in  general, 
producing  unconventional  plays,  religious  dramas,  and 
at  stated  times  plays  of  the  Passion  of  Christ.  In 
England  they  have  a  scheme  of  people's  theatres 
and  plays,  in  which  the  actors  are  selected  by  their 
resemblance  to  the  part  intended  for  them:  a  stout 
man  for  a  fat  man's  part,  a  light-haired  lady  where 
that  color  is  demanded,  and  so  forth.  This  eliminates 
the  use  of  wigs  and  make-up. 

In  this  country  the  rise  of  the  Chautauqua  institution 
in  the  West  developed  all  kinds  of  dramas  and  players. 
Amateurs  became  professionals.  This  winter  they 
invaded  New  York  and  the  regular  stage  in  Stuart 
Walker's  Portmanteau  Theatre,  as  he  called  it,  pre- 
senting odds  and  ends  of  drama,  such  as  can  never  be 
seen  on  the  professional  stage,  because  there  is  little 
money  to  be  made  out  of  these.  Perhaps  there  was 
not  much  dramatic  value  in  these  plays.  They  pleased 
rather  by  what  they  were  not  than  by  what  they  were. 


A  NEW  INSTITUTION  7 

Expert  playgoers  could  not  tell  from  one  scene  what 
was  coming  next.  The  scenery  suggested  more  than 
it  revealed.  In  a  word  it  was  amateur  drama  inter- 
preted by  professionals,  and  gave  the  same  pleasure 
as  a  one-ring  circus  in  the  country  gives  to  the  jaded 
admirer  of  Barnum  &  Bailey's. 

The  amateur  drama  being  the  parent  of  the  pro- 
fessional drama,  acts  towards  its  offspring  as  country 
grandmothers  often  do,  taking  the  worn-out  creature 
back  to  the  simplicity  of  the  farm,  lecturing  it  on  its 
origin,  reminding  it  of  the  simplicity  which  should  be 
the  root  of  the  healthy  variety,  and  otherwise  steady- 
ing its  mind  and  its  nerves.  The  Amateur  Theatre 
is  an  old  institution;  the  Parish  Theatre  is  quite  new. 


CHAPTER  II 
ITS  ADVENT  IN  AMERICA 

Fifty  years  ago  the  Christian  attitude  towards  the 
arts  in  general  was  one  of  suspicion  among  English- 
speaking  peoples  at  least.  Elsewhere  it  was  none  too 
cordial.  Probably  for  the  reason  that  the  arts  had  been 
used  so  universally  and  powerfully,  now  by  the  Mate- 
rialists, again  by  the  Voltaireans,  to  belittle  and  defame 
Catholic  truth  and  life.  Even  to  this  day  is  to  be 
found  amongst  us  the  old  Puritan  dread  of  the  press, 
of  poetry,  painting,  sculpture,  music,  the  novel  and 
the  play,  lest  through  their  seductive  forms  error  and 
sin  may  work  greater  havoc.  Evil  of  course  uses  them 
all,  and  in  our  time  much  better  than  virtue  employs 
them. 

The  press  of  the  world  is  virtually  in  the  hands  of 
secularism,  which  has  not  merely  exploited  itself, 
but  practically  destroyed  the  Christian  press.  The 
arts  of  poetry,  painting  and  sculpture  are  in  the  same 
hands.  The  business  of  amusing  the  people,  now  be- 
come a  vast  commercial  system  with  tremendous 
profits,  recognizes  no  law  but  what  it  cannot  dodge. 
The  stage  as  an  institution  has  many  departments 
of  which  the  drama  is  the  most  important  and  powerful. 
While  the  stage  also  belongs  to  the  secular  spirit,  the 

8 


ITS  ADVENT  IN  AMERICA  9 

drama  is  under  the  domination  of  certain  conventions 
which  have  saved  it  from  a  complete  secularization; 
but  Secularism  is  its  master. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  explain  why  this  condition 
exists,  that  all  the  good  things  in  art,  literature  and 
journalism  belong  to  Secularism  and  not  Christianity. 
Modern  Christians  since  1650  acquired  a  bad  habit 
of  abandoning  them  whenever  the  secular  spirit  in- 
vaded them.  American  Protestants  handed  over  the 
education! j 'of  their  children  to  the  State,  which  would 
not  admit  religion  into  the  schools,  and  now  we  have 
a  population  of  60,000,000  Americans  without  any 
religious  belief  at  all.  Christians  would  have  nothing 
to  do  with  the  stage  and  the  drama,  and  today  stage 
and  drama  will  have  nothing  to  do  with  them. 

Half  a  century  back  Christians  in  general  would 
have  nothing  to  do  with  the  novel.  It  was  immoral 
in  their  eyes.  Too  late  they  discovered  that  the  novel 
was  become  an  engine  against  the  faith.  Then  in  haste 
they  called  upon  Newman  and  Kingsley  and  a  hundred 
others  to  write  Christian  novels  for  them.  Today  you 
find  the  Christian  novel  everywhere  popularly  received. 
Did  the  Puritans,  from  this  swift  change  of  face,  learn 
anything  when  the  question  of  the  drama  came  up? 
Not  a  thing.  They  avoided  the  drama,  denounced 
it  at  times,  preached  against  it,  in  a  foolish  way  tried 
to  kill  it;  and  the  drama  has  grown  to  gigantic  pro- 
portions, invaded  society  in  every  part,  multiplied  it- 
self through  the  cinematograph,  become  a  tremendous 
force  for  good  or  evil;  and  now  at  the  last  moment, 


10  THE  PARISH  THEATRE 

yet  not  too  late,  the  Puritans  bob  up  with  various 
schemes  to  uplift  the  stage  and  the  drama. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  they  have  not  done  these  things 
through  conviction  or  graciousness,  but  simply  be- 
cause something  had  to  be  done.  In  other  words,  they 
were  forced  into  it,  and  this  forcing  explains  how  the 
Parish  Theatre  came  into  existence.  In  1850,  let  me 
repeat,  the  play,  like  the  novel  previously,  was  banned 
and  damned;  no  Christian  included  the  theatre  in 
his  amusements,  except  the  sinners.  Of  course  thou- 
sands of  believers  frequented  the  play,  feeling  that 
Puritan  rigor  was  foolish,  but  at  confession  time  they 
asked  absolution  for  the  sin:  just  as  the  novel  readers 
asked  absolution  for  the  reading  of  novels.  Theatre, 
actor,  play  and  managers  were  a  species  of  horror, 
or  bogie,  or  evil  spirit,  whose  existence  poisoned  the 
world. 

There  were  excuses  for  this  attitude,  but  no  good 
reasons.  The  people  of  the  stage  were  a  wandering 
tribe,  with  or  without  religion,  but  their  morality  and 
respectability  were  certainly  superior  to  army  and 
navy  standards,  when  the  most  pious  found  no  stain 
in  association  with  the  country's  defenders.  Of  course 
the  attitude  was  impossible  as  well  as  foolish  and  was 
bound  to  fall  before  any  well-directed  attack.  Amateur 
drama  made  the  attack.  It  had  been  growing  for  a 
long  time  quietly.  Many  found  it  a  pleasant  dissipa- 
tion to  rehearse  a  play  for  the  benefit  of  some  charity. 
The  amateur  actor  developed  in  due  time  the  amateur 
stage,  the  amateur  drama,  its  publisher,  its  manager, 


ITS  ADVENT  IN  AMERICA  11 

and  all  the  other  necessities.  At  the  present  moment 
a  score  or  more  of  publishers  devote  capital,  energy, 
large  catalogues,  to  exploiting  the  amateur  drama, 
which  really  embraces  everything  that  is  done  on  the 
professional  stage.  It  is  truly  a  great  institution,  as 
well  as  a  great  business,  but  no  one  so  far  has  regarded 
it  as  an  institution. 

It  was  impossible  that  Christians,  and  Catholics 
more  particularly,  should  see  this  institution  grow 
to  power  in  full  view,  and  not  be  forced  to  imitation. 
As  nearly  as  I  can  follow  its  course,  here  is  what 
happened,  in  sequence  sometimes,  oftener  concur- 
rently: the  church  school,  convent,  academy  and 
college  began  to  put  on  little  plays  for  their  own 
diversion;  then  more  ambitious  dramas,  which  often 
reached  the  stage  of  the  big  theatre,  so  eager  were 
the  people  to  witness  them,  as  the  people  have  always 
been.  Presently  there  appeared  upon  the  professional 
stage  little  groups  of  players  with  peculiar  forms  of 
entertainment.  Sometimes  they  came  with  a  minstrel 
show,  which  was  judged  moral  by  the  local  theologians, 
as  not  being  a  play.  They  had  Irish  names  and  did 
Irish  dances,  farces  and  monologues. 

Again  they  came  with  a  panorama  of  Ireland,  a  com- 
pany of  three  or  four,  who  set  the  stage  for  a  moving 
panorama  of  the  beloved  island,  and  then  performed 
their  comedy,  dancing,  singing,  and  tricks  before 
Irish  scenes.  McEvoy  and  his  Hibernicon  was  one, 
Howarth  and  his  Hibernicon  was  another,  Erin  and 
The  Brennans  was  a  third.  It  was  surely  no  sin  to 


12  THE  PARISH  THEATRE 

witness  these  instructive  and  amusing  entertainments, 
even  if  one  had  to  visit  a  theatre.  Presently  came 
Dion  Boucicault  and  his  famous  Colleen  Bawn,  the 
play  which  made  his  name  and  fortune,  and  which 
gave  the  drama  a  new  species  of  play  still  in  vogue. 
The  Irish  wit  and  humor  and  personality  invaded 
the  professional  stage  and  drew  the  Irish  to  the  theatre. 

Young  Catholics  became  actors  and  returned  in 
due  time  to  describe  their  triumphs  and  to  boast 
about  their  profits  and  to  ridicule  the  common  preju- 
dice ?  gainst  the  stage.  People  began  to  put  two  and 
two  together,  as  the  saying  is.  The  great  Passion 
Play  at  Ober-Ammergau  helped  the  thinking.  Very 
soon  the  parishes  began  to  train  amateur  companies 
for  social  aim  as  well  as  for  profit.  There  was  some 
difficulty  in  the  early  days  about  keeping  young 
Catholics  socially  intimate  so  as  to  hinder  mixed 
marriages  and  other  dangerous  associations.  The 
parish  hall  became  a  necessity,  the  parish  stage  became 
a  delight,  and  the  parish  play  drew  thousands  to  its 
presentation. 

I  remember  seeing  The  Colleen  Bawn  very  well 
played  by  a  parish  company  in  1876.  It  was  considered 
a  remarkable  achievement.  The  audience  had  the 
double  pleasure  of  enjoying  the  play  and  of  watching 
their  comrades  act.  It  is  forty  years  since  that  event. 
What  has  been  the  development  in  the  meantime? 
We  shall  study  that  in  another  chapter.  Suffice  it 
to  say  that  the  parish  section  of  the  amateur  drama 
is  an  established  institution,  and  is  really  worthy  to 


ITS  ADVENT  IN  AMERICA  13 

be  known  by  the  name  which  I  have  given  it,  The 
Parish  Theatre. 

Every  parish  that  can  afford  the  luxury  has  a  hall 
and  a  stage,  the  stage  owns  good  scenery,  fine  light- 
ing, and  excellent  properties,  the  plays  presented  are 
of  the  latest  form  and  are  well  acted,  and  the  audiences 
are  always  large  and  generous.  It  is  no  longer  difficult 
for  the  amateur  stage  to  put  on  Hamlet,  nor  for  its 
musical  department  to  stage  light  or  comic  operas. 
Gilbert  and  Sullivan  were  a  benediction  to  the  amateur 
stage.  A  most  interesting  volume  could  be  written  on 
the  achievements  of  parish  theatres  in  different  parts 
of  the  country.  A  few  are  as  well  appointed  as  the 
professional  stage. 

Their  revenue  is  a  necessity  to  parish  work,  a  fact 
which  gives  them  a  large  economic  value.  Their  in- 
fluence in  developing  Catholic  social  spirit  has  always 
been  very  strong.  Their  educational  value  may  also 
be  of  some  importance,  but  that  is  a  matter  for  dis- 
cussion. Undoubtedly  they  have  had  a  great  deal 
to  do  with  destroying  the  absurd  prejudice  against 
the  stage  and  the  drama,  which  a  purblind  puritanism 
has  nourished  for  four  centuries,  and  which  dies  harder 
than  any  other  mortal  thing.  The  main  fact  to  keep 
in  mind  is  that  The  Parish  Theatre  is  now  an  insti- 
tution, well  established,  well  known,  but  as  unconscious 
of  itself  as  a  boy  of  fifteen. 

It  has  grown  naturally  and  pleasantly,  it  has  over- 
come all  efforts  to  destroy  it,  and  it  is  so  intrenched 
that  dynamite  would  not  annihilate  but  simply  scatter 


14  THE  PARISH  THEATRE 

it.  The  Puritans  regard  it  with  regretful  eyes.  It  has 
forced  them  to  examine  the  professional  stage  with  a 
view  to  its  moral  direction.  What  cannot  be  annihi- 
lated must  be  regulated,  directed,  disinfected  if  need 
be,  supported,  praised  judiciously,  and  occasionally 
disciplined.  This  is  quite  different  from  ignoring  the 
inevitable,  a  favorite  policy  with  the  Puritans. 


CHAPTER  III 

PRESENT  CONDITIONS  IN  THE  PARISH 
THEATRE 

This  brief  account  of  the  new  institution,  as  a  de- 
partment of  a  world-wide  movement  called  The 
Amateur  Drama,  or  better,  The  People's  Drama, 
leads  to  the  question  of  the  skeptical:  Where  is  it  to 
be  found?  and  to  the  question  of  the  more  intelligent: 
How  is  this  parish  theatre  carried  on?  Both  the  pious 
and  the  skeptical  will  resent  the  very  name  of  the  new 
institution,  no  less  than  the  fact.  What!  that  thing 
which  we  have  denounced  all  our  lives,  and  which 
has  been  denounced  by  churchmen  since  the  days  of 
St.  Jerome,  now  an  institution  in  the  very  bosom  of 
the  Church!  The  parish  theatre  forsooth!  Display 
it  to  us,  set  it  forth,  drag  it  into  the  light,  that  all 
men  may  see!  A  play  here  and  there  at  intervals  is  of 
no  importance,  but  an  institution!  Shade  of  Bossuet! 

The  parish  hall  is  well  known  in  this  country,  as  it 
was  known  for  centuries  throughout  Europe  and  Asia. 
It  is  a  necessary  convenience  for  every  society.  I  have 
estimated  that  three  thousand  parish  halls  exist  in 
the  United  States.  The  figure  is  not  absolute,  but  it 
is  under  the  actual  number.  These  parish  halls  are 
the  home  of  the  parish  theatre.  Most  of  them  have  a 

15 


16  THE  PARISH  THEATRE 

stage,  with  scenery,  lights,  furniture;  but  it  matters 
not  how  poor  that  stage  may  be,  so  inveterate  is 
the  love  of  the  drama  among  the  people,  they  will 
stage  a  play  of  some  kind  a  few  times  a  year.  While 
doing  parish  work  on  Lake  Champlain  thirty  years 
ago,  the  town  hall  was  my  home  for  the  parish  theatre. 
It  had  no  stage,  scenery,  lights  or  curtain,  so  the  players 
manufactured  them  of  their  own  accord.  In  time  they 
made  it  worth  the  while  of  the  local  magnates  to  build 
a  proper  stage  with  all  the  accessories.  This  improve- 
ment brought  in  the  travelling  professional  companies, 
whose  skilled  performances  roused  the  parish  theatre 
actors  to  higher  levels  of  effort. 

The  parish  actors  have  developed  the  parish  hall 
and  their  own  successors,  and  have  aided  The  Ama- 
teur Theatre  in  the  development  of  their  own  drama. 
There  must  be  thirty  thousand  parish  theatre  actors 
in  this  country,  divided  into  three  thousand  companies. 
It  is  likely  that  they  give  ten  or  twelve  thousand 
plays  a  year,  and  double  that  number  of  performances. 
Such  an  aggregation,  even  though  working  haphazard, 
without  leaders,  standards,  ideals,  or  organization, 
must  exert  a  tremendous  influence  in  various  direc- 
tions. The  skeptical  will  hardly  sneer  at  such  an  in- 
stitution. The  intelligent  will  be  interested  at  once 
in  the  conditions.  They  have  only  to  watch  the  nearest 
parish  hall  to  see  the  parish  theatre  in  action;  only 
to  chat  with  the  manager  to  learn  the  details,  or  with 
the  pastor  to  get  the  history  of  the  dramatic  club. 
The  pastor  as  a  rule  is  the  director,  sometimes  the 


PRESENT  CONDITIONS  17 

manager.  He  was  born  in  the  amateur  drama,  and 
turns  to  it  for  relaxation  as  well  as  for  revenue.  In 
college  he  was  a  manager  and  learned  to  love  the 
drama  as  another  man  loves  fishing.  As  the  lone 
fisherman  sits  in  lovely  patience  for  the  bite  that 
comes  not,  the  manager  of  a  parish  theatre  endures 
the  innumerable  details  of  stage  direction  for  the 
sake  of  the  grand  climax. 

The  priest-managers  are  more  numerous  than  lay- 
managers,  because  only  the  larger  parishes  in  cities 
can  afford  the  expense  of  the  latter.  He  is  the  very 
marrow  of  the  institution.  Without  him,  nothing. 
The  uncertain  quantity  in  The  Parish  Theatre  is  the 
actor.  He  is  a  very  different  character  from  his  brother 
of  the  Amateur  Theatre.  He  is  more  finicky,  more 
sensitive,  less  enthuasistic,  and  therefore  more  diffi- 
cult. Only  the  dominating  clerical  manager  can  hold 
him  to  his  task.  Three  out  of  five  amateur  actors 
never  learn  a  part  before  rehearsal,  and  never  know 
a  part  until  the  last  rehearsal.  As  children  these  same 
people  knew  every  word  before  the  first  rehearsal,  as 
adults  they  find  it  impossible  to  learn  anything  except 
under  strong  constraint. 

The  manager  selects  them,  trains  them,  bears  with 
them,  encourages  them,  with  a  patience  quite  beyond 
the  power  of  an  average  saint.  Nevertheless  the 
achievement  of  the  parish  theatre  actors  is  remark- 
able. I  have  seen  them  play  such  dramas  as  A  Cele- 
brated Case,  Hazel  Kirke  and  East  Lynne  with  genuine 
effect.  At  the  present  moment  not  a  few  parish 


18  THE  PARISH  THEATRE 

companies  are  giving  remarkable  performances  of  Pas- 
sion plays  in  various  parts  of  the  country.  Our  unsettled 
American  life,  which  leaves  only  the  old  in  one  place, 
and  whirls  the  young  from  town  to  town,  in  search 
of  work  or  excitement,  renders  the  formation  of  dra- 
matic companies  difficult. 

In  spite  of  all  difficulties  the  supply  of  actors  never 
fails,  and  the  interest  of  their  audiences  never  dimin- 
ishes. A  psychological  study  of  the  parish  theatre 
audiences  would  be  worth  while.  They  consist  largely 
of  people  who  rarely  attend  the  regular  playhouse, 
whose  interest  is  childlike,  who  laugh  at  everything 
and  applaud  everything.  The  chief  attraction  for  them 
is  the  actors.  They  want  to  see  how  Tom  and  Dick 
and  Mary  will  acquit  themselves  as  actors;  and  it 
must  be  a  very  cheap  play  and  a  poor  performance 
which  leaves  them  silent  and  nnappreciative.  The 
story  told  in  the  drama  is  more  to  them  than  the 
acting.  To  the  expert  it  is  a  curious  spectacle  to  see 
such  an  audience  weep  over  a  grief  or  a  death  which 
inclines  them  to  laughter,  because  of  its  roughness. 
Simple  people  are  thinking  of  the  death  and  the  grief 
rather  than  of  the  portrayal. 

They  laugh  long  at  the  farcical,  for  an  opposite 
reason,  that  it  is  Tom  who  has  fallen  into  the  mud, 
Tom  whom  they  know  in  daily  life,  and  who  fell  into 
the  mud  so  naturally.  He  must  be  a  splendid  actor. 
The  notable  fact  about  these  parish  audiences  is  that 
they  support  their  theatre  with  endless  enthusiasm. 
It  is  they  who  have  built  up  the  parish  theatre,  from 


PRESENT  CONDITIONS  19 

rather  mixed  motives  of  course.  They  desire  to  see 
their  children  and  neighbors  act,  to  do  an  interesting 
thing,  to  be  entertained  in  a  novel  way,  and  to  bring 
money  into  the  parish  treasury;  the  manager's  aims  are 
revenue,  recreation  and  the  bringing  together  of  the 
people  in  a  social  way;  the  actors  are  pleasing  them- 
selves and  helping  the  parish  and  achieving  local 
fame.  Thus  was  the  parish  theatre  built  up  to  its 
present  proportions. 

To  get  a  proper  drama  has  been  the  chief  difficulty 
in  its  growth.  Only  since  the  demand  for  suitable 
plays  has  become  keen  has  the  difficulty  been  realized. 
The  Amateur  Drama  has  its  publishers  who  provide 
plays  suitable  for  the  amateur  stage,  and  The  Parish 
Theatre  has  drawn  upon  that  supply.  It  has  sufficient 
variety,  derived  from  a  very  simple  method.  What- 
ever themes  are  popular  in  the  professional  drama 
are  adapted  to  the  amateur  stage.  An  examination 
of  the  catalogues  of  publishers,  and  there  are  not  a  few 
in  the  market,  shows  such  divisions  of  the  popular 
drama  as  military  plays,  farm  plays,  temperance 
plays,  costume  plays,  mining  plays,  cowboy  plays, 
Irish,  German  and  Negro  plays,  naval  plays,  Indian 
plays,  domestic  plays,  and  high  society  plays.  College 
plays  with  football  as  the  theme  have  enjoyed  popu- 
larity* For  such  companies  as  can  afford  to  pay  royal- 
ties the  current  drama  is  available.  There  has  been  no 
lack  of  material  and  variety,  and  the  adaptation  has 
been  good;  but  monotony  has  been  a  very  marked 
characteristic  of  the  amateur  drama,  a  monotony  that 


20  THE  PARISH  THEATRE 

was  not  perceived  until  managers,  actors  and  audiences 
had  felt  it  a  long  time.  It  was  a  monotony  of  method, 
induced  by  the  limitations  of  amateur  actors  and  the 
amateur  stage. 

The  amateur  drama  is  based  on  the  professional. 
The  adapter  remembers  that  he  must  provide  a  certain 
set  of  characters  with  so  many  lines  each,  for  a  limited 
stage,  for  limited  scenery,  and  for  ineffective  lighting. 
Usually  the  play  is  in  four  acts,  twelve  characters, 
two  interior  and  two  exterior  scenes,  day  and  night, 
lines  as  terse  as  language  permits,  entrances  and  exits 
as  simple  as  picking  berries.  The  morality  of  the 
amateur  drama  is  beyond  reproach,  it  is  much  more 
moral  than  village  or  city  life  to  the  average  child, 
wickedness  is  always  hateful  and  always  punished, 
and  a  sermon  is  usually  delivered  in  each  act.  In  other 
words,  the  amateur  drama  is  a  good  sermon  on  obvious 
morality,  it  is  a  confection,  and  therefore  becomes  as 
monotonous  as  an  oft-repeated  sermon,  or  any  other 
sweet. 

There  has  arisen  a  cry  for  something  different, 
with  this  result,  that  the  Amateur  Theatre  has  dipped 
into  the  trivialities  of  the  professional  stage  for  the 
sake  of  novelty.  The  Parish  Theatre  has  not  yet 
followed  suit.  It  is,  however,  calling  for  something 
different,  and  must  get  it.  Like  the  child  it  hardly 
knows  what  it  wants.  From  many  parts  of  the  country 
the  cry  has  come  to  me,  in  the  shape  of  letters  from 
pastor-managers,  asking  something  new  and  suitable 
from  my  experience.  This  cry  means  a  new  period  of 


PRESENT  CONDITIONS  21 

development.  The  Parish  Theatre  has  without  know- 
ing it  passed  out  of  its  childhood  and  can  no  longer 
find  pleasure  in  the  child's  playthings. 

The  publishers  of  the  plays  for  amateurs  have  long 
recognized  the  need,  but  have  failed  to  supply  it. 
Their  catalogues  are  numerous  and  well  gotten  up,  but 
their  very  number  seems  hurtful.  They  are  made  to 
suit  all  tastes,  and  therefore  must  be  studied  for  days 
before  a  selection  can  be  made.  Then  the  manager 
must  read  ten  plays  to  get  one,  perhaps  he  must  read 
twenty.  It  has  been  so  for  thirty  years.  No  one  knows 
just  what  to  do,  or  cares  to  do  the  right  thing.  Yet 
the  way  out  is  simple  enough.  We  can  discuss  it  in 
the  next  chapter,  after  this  pleasant  view  of  the  parish 
manager,  actor,  drama,  audience  and  stage.  We  have 
always  known  them,  but  never  viewed  them  as  an 
institution,  working  quietly  and  gaily  in  the  shadow 
of  the  Church,  towards  the  redemption  of  an  art 
which  commerce  enslaves  for  the  sake  of  profit,  and 
the  Puritan  leaves  in  the  gutter  for  the  sake  of  right- 
eousness! 


CHAPTER   IV 
THE  NEED   OF  ORGANIZATION 

It  seems  clear  enough  that  this  institution,  The 
Parish  Theatre,  exists,  and  with  three  thousand 
parish  halls  giving  at  least  four  plays  a  year  it  may  be 
said  to  exist  in  a  large  way.  It  is  a  phenomenon.  Its 
social  and  financial  uses  are  well  known  to  the  clergy, 
who  employ  them  for  the  benefit  of  the  people  and  the 
parish  finances.  Approximately  60,000  persons  are 
concerned  in  the  production  of  parish  drama;  a  quarter 
of  a  million  dollars  are  spent  annually  on  these  plays, 
and  the  investment  brings  in  nearly  $2,000,000.  The 
clergy  value  highly  the  social  influence  of  these  affairs. 
Moreover,  they  are  only  a  section  of  that  great  move- 
ment called  The  Amateur  Theatre,  or  The  People's 
Theatre,  which  has  spread  over  the  world.  The  uni- 
versities, colleges,  convents,  academies  and  schools  are 
also  concerned,  for  they  also  have  their  own  drama. 
With  these  facts  before  us  it  is  not  too  much  to  say 
that  The  Parish  Theatre  is  an  institution,  and  worthy 
of  study. 

Some  would  have  this  study  take  a  destructive 
form.  That  has  been  tried.  There  have  been  decrees 
uttered  against  drama  in  the  parish  and  in  the  school, 
but  the  decrees  are  all  dead,  and  the  parish  drama 

22 


THE  NEED  OF  ORGANIZATION  23 

lives  and  flourishes  still.  Decrees  cannot  kill  such 
things.  If  they  could,  the  pagan  drama  would  have 
died  long  ago.  Like  dancing,  and  novel  reading,  and 
feasting,  and  other  amusements  of  the  people,  the 
drama  will  never  be  abandoned  because  of  decrees. 
The  innocent  indulgence  in  it  must  be  guided,  wisely 
developed,  nobly  restrained,  by  the  elders  of  the 
nation.  If  you  leave  it  alone,  it  flourishes  rankly  or 
foolishly;  if  you  direct  it,  the  good  and  the  bad  flourish 
side  by  side,  but  everyone  will  know  the  difference; 
which  is  about  all  that  can  be  expected  in  a  world 
like  ours. 

The  Parish  Theatre  is  not  yet  conscious  of  itself, 
its  aims  are  few,  and  its  methods  spasmodic.  There- 
fore its  chief  need  is  organization.  While  it  is  a  section 
of  The  People's  Theatre,  it  happens  to  have  a  higher 
destiny.  It  must  not  only  be  moral,  but  religious  in 
the  Catholic  sense.  Its  social  aim  is  proper  and  fine, 
its  financial  profit  is  useful,  but  in  addition  it  must 
be  above  these,  it  must  be  artistic  in  a  simple  way. 
This  Catholic  artistic  ideal  can  only  be  attained  by 
study,  intelligent  study  of  the  institution,  its  ways 
and  means  and  methods.  That  means  organization. 
The  first  step  towards  organization  has  been  taken  in 
this  book  by  naming  the  new  institution  The  Parish 
Theatre.  The  name  will  be  instantly  recognized  by 
the  thousands  interested,  and  from  this  date  will  be 
heard  all  over  the  country,  perhaps  throughout  the 
world.  If  you  wish  to  feel  its  full  significance,  watch 
the  Puritan  wriggle  and  writhe  at  its  first  utterance, 


24  THE  PARISH  THEATRE 

as  if  a  colic  seized  him.  Fateful  conjunction  of  the 
pious  and  the  impious,  the  parish  and  the  theatre! 

The  second  step  in  organization  should  be  central 
bureaus,  located  in  New  York  and  other  central  cities, 
to  which  the  units  may  turn  for  light,  direction,  in- 
formation, instruction,  the  newest  methods  and  the 
best  plays.  The  Catholic  Actors  Guild  has  opened 
such  a  bureau  at  its  offices  in  the  Longacre  Building, 
Broadway  and  42d  Street,  and  will  be  ready  for  busi- 
ness by  the  time  this  book  reaches  the  managers  of 
the  parish  theatres.  Its  first  business  will  be  the  dis- 
tribution of  this  volume  and  catalogue,  which  comes  out 
under  its  auspices.  Its  next  business  will  be  concerned 
with  the  production  of  plays  suited  to  the  new  insti- 
tution. This  matter  is  the  hinge  of  The  Parish  Theatre. 
As  I  have  already  pointed  out,  there  are  three  classes 
of  plays  on  hand:  the  amateur  drama,  the  regular 
drama  and  the  drama  prepared  for  Catholic  colleges 
and  parish  actors.  The  first  is  fairly  acceptable,  the 
second  is  good,  but  expensive  because  of  royalties, 
and  the  third  is  heavy  and  commonplace. 

Such  a  statement  brings  up  the  question:  Well, 
what  sort  of  a  play  does  The  Parish  Theatre  want,  or 
need?  To  understand  the  answer  one  would  have 
to  be  a  manager  at  one  time  in  a  parish  theatre.  The 
plays  provided  for  the  amateur  stage  are  good  and 
useful,  but  they  have  become  monotonous  for  a  very 
simple  reason :  they  reflect  the  regular  stage.  The  dram- 
atists look  up  the  prevailing  fashion  in  the  regular 
drama,  and  then  write  plays  for  the  amateurs  in  the 


THE  NEED  OF  ORGANIZATION  25 

prevailing  fashion.  It  is  regular  drama  made  easy. 
When  you  have  produced  ten,  audiences  know  the 
formula  the  moment  the  curtain  rises.  This  is  fatal 
to  interest.  Many  parish  companies  therefore  seek 
the  popular  farce  of  last  season  when  they  are  able  to 
pay  a  high  royalty.  This  system  is  of  course  fatal  to 
The  Parish  Theatre,  which  then  becomes  an  ordinary 
third-class  theatre.  It  loses  its  character.  The  plays 
written  specially  for  The  Parish  Theatre,  or  rather  for 
its  first  cousins  the  college  and  convent  stage,  are 
stilted  exercises  in  poetry  or  linguistics,  prepared  by 
professors  of  elocution  or  English,  with  little  knowledge 
of  drama  and  none  at  all  of  parish  theatre  audiences 
or  human  nature. 

A  compromise  has  been  found  by  some  managers 
and  some  playwrights  by  adapting  plays  from  the  reg- 
ular stage  to  suit  The  People's  Theatre.  For  example 
Mr.  Charles  Townsend  has  made  a  capital  arrange- 
ment of  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,  which  has  all  the  color 
and  snap  of  the  big  drama  and  goes  well  with  audiences. 
Years  ago  I  adapted  the  famous  East  Lynne  by  leaving 
out  the  third  act,  cutting  the  emotional  speeches,  and 
the  superfluous  characters,  and  made  it  a  highly  moral 
play  besides,  which  it  is  not  from  The  Parish  Theatre 
point  of  view.  As  soon  as  an  old  favorite  passes  out 
of  copyright  this  process  can  be  employed  with  success; 
and  it  will  be  one  item  of  work  in  the  central  office  to 
adapt  famous  plays  to  the  parish  stage.  But  the  proper 
idea  will  be  to  found  a  parish  theatre  drama  and  to  get 
dramatists  for  that  work.  Now  for  an  answer  to  the 


26  THE  PARISH  THEATRE 

question:  What  sort  of  a  play  does  The  Parish  Theatre 
need?  It  needs  a  four-act  play  in  simple  language, 
easy  to  stage,  rich  in  incidents  and  fun,  with  a  good 
story,  and  employment  for  ten  characters.  There 
should  be  elevation  in  the  theme,  sweetness  in  the 
diction,  and  cleanliness  in  all  the  details.  It  should 
not  require  more  than  two  hours  to  perform.  This  is 
simple  enough,  and  the  amateur  drama  is  produced 
from  a  like  simplicity,  but  amateur  drama  does  not 
reach  the  real  need  of  The  Parish  Theatre. 

In  various  parts  of  this  country  The  People's  Thea- 
tre, sometimes  called  the  Neighborhood  Theatre,  is 
producing  a  local  drama  which  deals  with  the  life  the 
people  lead.  This  drama  takes  up  the  ordinary  prob- 
lems of  life  and  shows  how  they  should  be  solved. 
The  stage  in  this  instance  becomes  the  mirror  of  social 
life,  and  simple,  irreflective  people  see  their  life  as  in 
a  mirror,  and  are  much  pleased,  deeply  interested,  and 
wisely  instructed.  The  common  crowd,  it  must  be 
admitted,  do  not  reflect  much,  and,  when  they  do, 
reach  regrettable  conclusions  only  too  often.  They 
need  steady  instruction,  advice  and  restraint  from  wise 
friends.  The  drama  can  be  used  to  teach  them.  Now 
The  Parish  Theatre,  from  this  point  of  view,  has  a 
splendid  field  to  itself.  From  association  with  non- 
Catholics  our  simple  people  are  filled  with  innocent 
heresies,  not  of  doctrine,  but  of  life.  For  example, 
too  many  of  them  cannot  see  the  difference  between 
the  life  of  grace  and  the  life  of  natural  goodness:  they 
Bee  no  danger  in  the  intimacy  of  Catholic  and  pagan; 


THE  NEED  OF  ORGANIZATION  27 

they  do  not  understand  why  religion  should  be  neces- 
sary to  education,  literature,  journalism  and  art;  they 
shrink  at  the  reproach  of  poverty  and  ignorance,  so 
freely  hurled  at  the  Christian  body  by  the  ignorant. 

Therefore  the  drama  suited  to  The  Parish  Theatre 
should  deal  with  local  and  historical  Christian  life. 
The  theme  and  the  characters  should  be  presented  with 
all  the  humor  inherent  in  both.  The  audiences  of  this 
theatre  want  in  the  first  place  a  good  story,  with  room 
for  tears,  laughter  and  thrills;  then  they  want  the 
colloquial,  picturesque  costuming,  and  effective  tab- 
leaux; and  in  particular  they  desire  plain  language. 
The  humor  and  the  pathos  can  be  broad  and  homely, 
but  the  language  and  the  action  must  be  speedy. 
This  prescription  is  thoroughly  modern.  It  is  very 
different  from  that  which  pleased  the  common  crowd 
in  Shakespeare's  time,  or  even  a  century  back.  Where 
are  we  to  get  such  a  drama?  The  writers  of  amateur 
drama  will  be  able  to  provide  it  as  soon  as  we  show 
them  a  model  parish  theatre  play  on  the  boards.  A 
Christian  dramatist  will  follow  the  prescription  with 
the  right  spirit,  once  he  too  has  seen  such  a  play  in 
presentation.  The  question  is:  Will  The  Parish  The- 
atre pay  for  it?  Why  not?  A  royalty  of  five  dollars 
is  within  the  power  of  any  company,  and  all  of  them 
would  be  glad  to  pay  it  to  be  saved  the  trouble  of 
reading  catalogues  and  plays  for  weeks. 

It  is  not  intended  that  this  prescription  shall  be  too 
literally  followed.  The  farce,  the  musical  comedy, 
vaudeville,  tragedy,  all  have  their  place  in  The  Parish 


28  THE  PARISH  THEATRE 

Theatre.  Each  has  its  own  parish  theatre  form.  For 
example  Richelieu  can  be  beautifully  arranged  for 
amateurs,  and  even  Hamlet.  The  comic  operas  of 
Gilbert  and  Sullivan  deserve  an  everlasting  place. 
Imitations  of  musical  comedy  have  a  right  to  presen- 
tation, so  much  do  the  people  enjoy  them.  This  variety 
is  necessary  to  escape  from  the  monotony  above 
mentioned.  The  central  bureau  must  settle  all  these 
matters,  find  the  dramatists,  and  market  the  plays. 
The  New  York  office  will  send  out  this  coming  season 
new  plays  written  for  The  Parish  Theatre  to  test  the 
situation. 

The  fourth  step  towards  organization  should  be  the 
printing  of  a  list  of  plays,  and  this  has  been  done 
in  the  present  volume,  in  a  tentative  way.  The  plays 
herein  presented  are  the  nearest  approach  to  what 
The  Parish  Theatre  needs,  but  they  are  all  from  the 
amateur  catalogues  and  are  by  no  means  model  plays. 
Most  of  them  have  been  presented  in  one  parish 
theatre  or  another,  and  have  been  approved  by  audi- 
ences. For  the  most  part  their  language  is  common- 
place, their  incidents  lurid,  their  characters  good,  and 
their  morality  sound;  but  they  are  often  without  taste 
or  delicacy  or  loftiness  of  theme.  There  is  no  inspira- 
tion in  them.  Roughly  put  together,  in  imitation  of 
the  regular  drama,  their  only  merits  are  that  they 
suit  amateur  actors,  small  theatres,  and  simple  audi- 
ences. 

The  amateur  actor  is  a  difficult  person.  He  cannot 
commit  to  memory  long  speeches,  he  can  never  arrive 


THE  NEED  OF  ORGANIZATION  29 

in  time  for  a  swift  tableau  or  a  critical  moment,  and 
above  all  he  can  never  play  a  pathetic  part.  People 
laugh  at  his  pathos.  These  points  explain  the  limita- 
tions of  the  amateur  drama.  Hence  readers  must 
not  expect  anything  lofty  from  this  catalogue.  It  is 
intended  to  shorten  the  labors  of  anxious  and  perspiring 
managers.  Its  five  divisions  embrace  the  average 
drama,  farce,  musical  farce,  plays  for  boys,  plays  for 
girls.  It  should  keep  any  manager  going  for  ten  years, 
and  by  that  time  we  shall  have  a  supply  of  plays 
written  for  The  Parish  Theatre,  in  all  keys,  to  suit 
all  tastes  and  demands. 

Budding  playwrights  may  study  this  catalogue  with 
profit.  It  shows  what  The  Parish  Theatre  wants.  I 
commend  in  particular  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,  The 
Octoroon,  and  A  Rustic  Romeo,  as  models  for  future 
work.  They  are  precisely  what  the  amateur  actor 
is  able  to  do,  and  what  the  parish  audience  can  under- 
stand, appreciate,  weep  and  laugh  over.  Let  them 
avoid  the  catalogues  of  plays^for  colleges  and  convents, 
where  the  audiences  have  a  different  standard  and  a 
higher  taste.  Their  plays  are  not  suited  to  The  Parish 
Theatre  audience,  succeeding  only  in  putting  them  to 
sleep. 

The  final  step  in  organization  should  be  a  gathering 
of  parish  theatre  managers  in  some  quiet  spot  to  dis- 
cuss ways  and  means  for  improving  the  institution 
without  awaking  the  Puritans,  who  are  ready  to  call 
a  plenary  council  to  destroy  this  latest  iniquity.  For 
the  present  discussion  will  have  to  be  by  mail,  or  in 


30  THE  PARISH  THEATRE 

twos  and  threes,  in  gum  shoes,  without  publicity. 
The  Parish  Theatre  has  grown  to  dimensions  because 
no  one  noticed  it.  Now  that  it  has  a  name,  an  office, 
a  catalogue  of  plays,  and  a  promising  future  with  an  in- 
come, let  all  beware!  The  great  wire-puller  known  as 
The  Whisperer,  who  stands  in  the  shadow  of  thrones 
and  whispers  things  to  their  occupants,  may  take 
notice  and  utter  his  sibilant  condemnation. 


CHAPTER  V 
THE  PASSION  PLAY  IN  AMERICA 

A  brilliant  instance  of  the  innate  power  of  The 
Parish  Theatre  is  the  introduction  of  Passion  plays 
within  the  last  twenty  years.  I  have  not  data  suffi- 
ciently accurate  to  make  positive  assertions  about  this 
form  of  drama,  whose  first  appearance  seems  to  have 
been  in  the  Jesuit  college  of  Santa  Clara,  California, 
some  twenty  years  ago.  A  Jesuit  wrote  the  play,  and 
the  distinguished  actor,  James  O'Neill,  played  the 
Christus.  I  have  seen  a  photograph  of  him,  so  wonder- 
ful that  one  might  have  recommended  it  to  the  painters 
who  so  vainly  seek  models  for  their  paintings  of  Christ. 
Few  modern  painters,  if  any,  have  been  able  to  give 
us  a  convincing  likeness  of  Christ;  in  this  instance  the 
actor  seems  to  have  achieved  what  the  painters  could 
not  attain.  The  Santa  Clara  play  won  public  applause 
and  attention,  and  is  still  occasionally  played  in 
Jesuit  institutions.  It  was  produced  last  year  in  Boston, 
and  I  had  the  pleasure  of  reading  the  manuscript  of 
the  play.  The  present  version,  out  of  deference  to 
public  opinion  in  the  East,  has  left  out  the  part  of 
the  Christus.  This  omission  would  never  suit  the 
Italian  peasant,  who  has  been  brought  up  on  homely 
but  effective  parish  Passion  plays.  The  story  is  told 

31 


32  THE  PARISH  THEATRE 

of  one  who  attended  an  American  Passion  play,  and 
who  promptly  after  the  first  act  left  the  theatre  and 
demanded  his  money  back  on  the  ground  that  the 
play  was  fraudulent.  "Where  de  Cristo?"  he  asked, 
and  to  the  explanation  he  replied:  "No  Cristo,  no 
good  play."  The  criticism  was  valid.  We  are  all  afraid 
that  the  regular  stage  will  attempt  again  a  Passion 
play,  as  did  Salmi  Morse  in  1890,  or  thereabouts, 
which  progressed  to  the  selection  of  a  theatre  and  the 
rehearsal  of  the  play,  when  public  opinion  wiped  it  out. 
If  The  Parish  Theatre  produces  the  Christ  in  person, 
why  not  permit  the  same  privilege  to  the  regular 
stage?  Therefore  writers  of  Passion  plays  have  omitted 
the  person  of  Christ.  However,  in  the  winter  of  1917 
a  young  priest  in  the  diocese  of  Buffalo  dramatized 
Father  Klarman's  novel,  The  Princess  of  Gan  Sar, 
and  introduced  the  Christ  without  offending  pious 
eyes  or  ears.  In  fact  a  good  impression  was  made, 
and  the  clergy  who  attended  the  first  presentation 
were  edified  both  by  the  play  and  by  the  effect  upon 
the  audience. 

The  second  presentation  of  a  Passion  play  occurred 
in  the  Redemptorist  parish  of  Roxbury,  Boston.  The 
parish  owns  a  fine  parish  theatre,  whose  stage  is  equal 
to  all  the  demands  of  the  modern  play.  About  fifteen 
years  ago  Rev.  Father  Kenzel  wrote  a  Passion  play 
for  the  young  women  of  the  parish,  entitled  The 
Mystic  Rose,  or  Pilate's  Daughter.  It  was  staged 
during  the  Lenten  season,  and  so  beautifully  presented 
that  the  Boston  world  went  out  to  see  it,  and  has 


THE  PASSION  PLAY  IN  AMERICA  33 

done  so  every  Lenten  season  since,  with  ceaseless 
delight.  An  enterprising  manager  undertook  to  inter- 
est the  general  public  in  it  but  failed.  The  play  makes 
its  sole  appeal  to  the  religious  emotions,  and  is  rather 
limited  in  characterization.  It  is  therefore  too  simple 
for  the  ordinary  playgoer.  The  Passionists  of  Hoboken 
probably  were  the  next  to  present  a  Passion  play, 
which  by  reason  of  the  pains  taken  with  it  became 
the  most  notable  of  its  class.  As  they  were  in  posses- 
sion of  a  fine  auditorium,  whose  stage  was  spacious 
enough  for  modern  Shakespearian  drama,  the  promoters 
had  only  to  provide  the  play,  scenery  and  costumes. 
With  the  Santa  Clara  and  Roxbury  productions  before 
them,  it  was  not  difficult  to  improve  upon  these  pred- 
ecessors. The  result  demonstrated  what  The  Parish 
Theatre  is  able  to  do  in  dramatic  production. 

Veronica's  Veil  was  the  title  of  the  play,  and  the 
author  was  Rev.  Bernardine  Busch,  C.P.  He  adopted 
the  use  of  alternate  tableaux  to  carry  on  the  action 
of  the  drama  and  to  add  to  its  splendor.  The  play 
opens  with  a  tableau  of  the  betrayal  of  Christ,  in  three 
actions:  the  kiss  of  Judas,  the  prostration  of  the  sol- 
diers, and  the  binding  of  Christ.  Immediately  the 
scene  changes  to  the  palace  of  Caiaphas  and  the  San- 
hedrin  is  discovered  in  consultation.  Opinion  is  divided, 
Nicodemus  stoutly  though  cautiously  defending  Christ, 
while  Caiaphas  bitterly  demands  capital  punishment. 
The  High  Priest  wins  and  Christ  is  condemned  to 
death.  Then  appear  Judas  and  Veronica,  the  traitor 
to  fling  back  the  blood  money  and  the  woman  to  plead 


34  THE  PARISH  THEATRE 

for  the  Nazarene;  but  neither  the  remorse  of  one  nor 
the  pleading  of  the  other  can  change  the  determination 
of  Caiaphas  and  his  party.  The  act  is  written  with  con- 
siderable power,  enough  to  demand  professional  actors 
for  the  work.  It  is  written  in  fact  for  professionals,  and 
is  consequently  beyond  the  powers  of  amateur  actors, 
whose  attempt  to  portray  the  rage  of  Caiaphas  and 
the  remorse  of  Judas  lands  them  in  rank  melodrama. 
The  second  act  shows  the  home  of  Veronica,  while 
the  trial  of  Christ  is  going  on  among  the  rulers  of  the 
city.  Sirach,  the  husband  of  Veronica  and  a  member 
of  the  Sanhedrin,  brings  the  news  of  the  condemna- 
tion, the  scourging  and  crowning  with  thorns,  and  the 
preparations  for  crucifixion.  The  procession  to  Cal- 
vary passes  the  door.  Veronica  rushes  forth  to  meet 
the  Saviour  and  presents  Him  with  the  towel  which 
He  presses  to  His  bloody  face,  then  the  procession 
moves  on  and  Veronica  reenters  bowed  with  grief  and 
horror.  As  she  holds  up  the  towel  those  present  kneel 
with  awe  before  a  portrait  of  the  Saviour  on  the  towel, 
from  which  shines  a  mysterious  light.  At  the  spectacle 
Sirach  and  a  daughter  of  Caiaphas  humbly  confess  their 
faith  in  Christ.  The  scene  is  rather  naive,  and  lacks 
any  consideration  for  people  experienced  in  modern 
drama.  The  face  on  the  towel  is  the  familiar  face  of 
the  art  stores,  its  eyes  now  closed,  now  open,  and  too 
precise,  too  accurate  for  a  modern  drama.  It  would 
suit  a  medieval  miracle  play  admirably,  but  for  a 
modern  audience  the  portrait  should  be  blurred,  bloody, 
yet  able  to  suggest  the  face  of  the  agonizing  Christ. 


THE  PASSION  PLAY  IN  AMERICA  35 

This  act  is  followed  by  a  tableau  of  the  crucifixion  in 
three  scenes:  the  gambling  soldiers,  the  three  Marys 
at  the  cross,  and  the  death  of  Christ. 

The  third  act  takes  place  in  the  house  of  Caiaphas, 
immediately  after  the  burial  of  the  Saviour.  Fear  has 
seized  the  household  of  the  High  Priest,  due  to  the 
earthquake  and  darkness  and  ghostly  visitations  which 
accompanied  and  followed  the  death  of  the  hated 
Nazarene.  Then  the  leading  characters  enter  one  by 
one  and  fill  Caiaphas  with  horror:  the  centurion  who 
presided  at  the  execution  describes  the  death  of  the 
Master  and  announces  his  faith  in  the  Son  of  God; 
next  Ruth,  the  younger  daughter  of  the  household, 
makes  a  like  declaration  of  faith.  Thereupon  a  con- 
vulsion shakes  the  household  of  Caiaphas.  Ruth  is 
banished  forever,  her  mother  dies  suddenly,  and 
Caiaphas  under  the  stress  of  trouble  goes  insane.  For 
the  third  time  the  dramatist  makes  demands  upon 
amateurs  which  would  try  the  highest  skill  of  a  pro- 
fessional, with  the  usual  result  that  some  scenes  ap- 
proach the  burlesque.  The  third  tableau  is  that  of  the 
Resurrection. 

The  scene  now  shifts  to  Rome,  where  Ruth  and  Ve- 
ronica are  living,  devoting  their  lives  to  the  spread  of 
the  faith,  and  to  the  working  of  miracles  by  means  of 
the  wonderful  veil.  In  the  house  of  the  noble  Fabius 
there  is  great  grief  because  his  child  Claudia  is  sick 
unto  death,  and  their  appeals  to  the  gods  and  to  the 
skill  of  the  physicians  have  been  in  vain.  Claudia  dies. 
Then  comes  Veronica  to  the  grief-stricken  parents, 


36  THE  PARISH  THEATRE 

places  the  veil  upon  the  dead  body,  and  brings  the 
girl  back  to  life.  Fabius  and  his  family  become  Chris- 
tians. In  the  catacombs  they  witness  the  ceremony  of 
receiving  the  virgins  into  a  religious  life.  This  scene 
is  invaded  by  Roman  soldiers,  guided  thither  by  the 
vindictive  sister  of  Ruth,  Miriam,  the  elder  daughter 
of  Caiaphas,  who  has  sworn  everlasting  enmity  to  the 
Christians.  The  fifth  and  last  act  is  devoted  to  the 
trial  and  death  of  the  martyrs.  It  is  splendidly  mounted 
to  show  the  palace  of  the  Caesar  and  the  Mamertine 
prison.  In  the  latter  the  martyrs  are  seen  preparing 
for  death  and  glory,  the  miraculous  veil  restores  sight 
to  the  jailer 's  wife,  and  both  become  members  of  the 
fold.  In  the  former  the  noble  Fabius  and  his  family 
are  brought  before  the  Emperor  for  examination  and 
for  sentence;  their  son,  Regulus,  a  favorite  general, 
defends  them  and  is  slain  on  the  spot;  the  miraculous 
veil  is  present  and  destroys  a  statue  of  Jupiter  in  the 
Emperor's  presence;  ordered  by  Csesar  to  destroy  the 
veil,  Petronius,  a  soldier  is  killed;  then  the  enraged 
Miriam  repeats  the  attempt  of  the  soldier  and  also 
perishes;  but  the  prayers  of  Ruth  change  her  heart 
and  she  dies  in  contrition.  The  last  tableau  shows 
the  martyrs  in  glory. 

The  beauty  of  this  play  is  remarkable.  Its  faults 
are  common  ones,  looseness  of  structure,  little  regard 
for  the  unities,  too  great  a  demand  upon  the  skill  of 
amateurs,  a  lack  of  simplicity,  too  much  wordiness. 
In  the  matter  of  staging  it  is  too  richly  colored,  giving 
an  impression  that  the  life  of  the  Jews  was  a  daily 


THE  PASSION  PLAY  IN  AMERICA  37 

pageant.  Even  the  terrible  Mamertine  is  made  pic- 
turesque, and  the  catacombs.  But  as  an  example  of 
what  The  Parish  Theatre  can  do  it  is  a  marvel.  As  an 
illustration  of  what  the  people  want  at  times  it  served 
perfectly:  twenty  performances  were  not  enough  to 
satisfy  the  popular  demand.  Two  amateur  companies 
were  kept  going,  and  as  the  actors  worked  daily  for 
a  living,  the  expert  can  see  what  the  amateur  actor 
is  ready  to  do.  Twice  a  week  he  returned  from  the 
day's  work  in  office  or  factory  or  business  and  donned 
the  elaborate  costume  of  Jerusalem  or  Rome  for  the 
play.  Father  Hugh  Benson,  the  distinguished  English 
convert,  wrote  a  Passion  play  called  The  Upper 
Roomy  which  for  five  years  has  been  presented  during 
Lent  in  the  Lourdes  parish  of  New  York.  While 
Veronica's  Veil  was  a  gorgeous  dramatic  expression, 
The  Upper  Room  has  for  its  keynote  restraint.  A 
single  scene,  that  small  room  in  which  the  religion  of 
Christ  began  its  corporate  existence,  is  the  place. 
Here  come  all  the  characters  connected  with  the 
tragedy  of  Calvary,  with  the  latest  details,  or  with 
their  grief  and  despair.  At  each  step  in  the  agony  of 
Christ,  some  character  appears  to  tell  what  has  hap- 
pened. At  times  the  window  or  opening  at  the  back 
is  thrown  wide,  and  the  spectator  may  see  things  that 
are  going  on  outside.  Thus  the  spears  of  soldiers 
are  seen  passing,  the  shouts  of  the  mob  are  heard, 
the  three  crosses  are  dragged  by  and  that  of  the  Savi- 
our's falls  to  the  ground  and  then  appears  again.  At 
the  close  of  the  play  the  perspective  shows  three 


38  THE  PARISH  THEATRE 

crosses  on  a  far,  storm-swept  hill.  It  is  not  a  drama  of 
action  but  of  suggestion.  Its  interest  never  fails.  Its 
language  is  sweet,  striking,  the  sentiment  pitched  in 
melancholy,  but  full  of  resignation  and  hope  and 
triumph.  The  effect  upon  audiences  is  always  profound. 

Last  year  the  city  of  Lawrence,  Massachusetts,  pro- 
duced a  Passion  play.  A  distinguished  member  of  the 
Augustinians,  Father  Palmieri,  wrote  it.  It  was  trans- 
lated into  English  and  given  its  first  presentation  in 
the  Italian  parish.  In  construction  it  followed  the 
method  of  Veronica's  Veil,  allowing  the  tableau  to 
complete  what  the  text  could  not;  it  made  something 
of  the  Veil  incident  in  the  same  way;  Caiaphas  faced 
Pilate,  and  Judas  faced  his  devoted  sister  in  the  dra- 
matic struggle;  the  Virgin  Mother  was  introduced, 
rather  ineffectively;  and  the  close  proved  to  be  an 
anti-climax  in  power  and  in  sympathy.  It  was  received, 
however,  with  deep  interest  by  large  audiences  through 
the  State,  paid  expenses  which  were  high,  and  fairly 
recompensed  its  promoters.  Passion  plays  were  pre- 
sented in  Brooklyn,  in  Union  Hill,  New  Jersey,  -  in 
Toronto,  Canada,  and  in  lesser  places,  mostly  Italian 
parishes  with  whose  people  the  Passion  play  is  popular. 
It  is  easy  to  predict  that  this  class  of  drama  will  speed- 
ily become  common  in  this  country. 

Akin  to  this  species  of  drama  is  the  special  play 
produced  by  private  enterprise  or  local  enthusiasm, 
such  as  The  Mission  Play  of  McGroarty  in  California 
and  Shamus  O'Brien  in  New  York.  The  former  is 
familiar  to  tourists  who  reach  Los  Angeles,  because 


THE  PASSION  PLAY  IN  AMERICA  39 

it  is  played  for  their  benefit  at  certain  times,  out  at 
the  beautiful  old  Mission  San  Gabriel,  a  few  miles 
from  the  city.  In  a  poetic  and  splendid  fashion  it 
tells  the  story  of  Fra  Junipero  Serra,  the  famous  and 
wonderful  missionary  with  whose  deeds  and  character 
modern  historians  have  fallen  in  love  as  others  yielded 
to  the  fascination  of  the  rediscovered  Francis  of  Assisi. 
With  Tyrone  Power  in  the  leading  part  the  play 
proved  most  convincing,  but  when  taken  out  among 
the  Gentiles  it  could  not  find  appreciative  audiences. 
The  Resurrection  of  Shamus  O'Brien  was  an  attempt 
to  present  the  Sinn  Fein  rising  in  Dublin  last  year,  and 
although  written  by  an  amateur  in  the  style  of  melo- 
drama and  tableau,  such  fire  glowed  in  its  scenes  as 
many  a  skilled  production  had  not  a  spark  of.  It  is 
not  easy  to  say  how  many  of  these  spontaneous 
productions  take  place  each  year,  but  these  herein 
described  are  notable  enough  to  test  the  mettle  of 
The  Parish  Theatre,  and  to  show  the  strength  of  that 
dramatic  impulse  in  the  human  race,  which  will  find 
expression  in  popular  drama. 


CHAPTER  VI 
A  FORECAST 

It  may  safely  be  said  that  the  drama,  whether  as  an 
amusement  or  as  an  institution,  is  irrepressible.  Its 
many  condemnations  and  repressions  by  all  classes 
of  authority,  and  its  inevitable  return  to  favor  in  the 
course  of  time,  prove  its  inveteracy.  As  an  amusement 
even  the  most  puritanical  can  find  no  fault  with  it, 
except  in  its  tendency  to  become  a  popular  institution. 
Hence  convents  and  colleges  have  found  the  play 
admirable,  both  for  training  in  the  vernacular  and 
for  recreation,  a  real  remedy  for  the  monotony  of  the 
cloister;  monasteries  have  cultivated  it  as  a  recreation 
for  mind  and  body.  As  an  institution  it  has  shown  the 
usual  tendency  of  human  institutions  to  run  to  seed 
by  seeking  too  much  financial  profit.  It  is  always 
ready  to  pander  to  corrupt  taste  and  appetite  for  the 
sake  of  gain,  and  comes  regularly  into  collision  with 
law,  taste  and  morality.  Nevertheless  the  institution 
persists.  The  axe  and  the  fire  cannot  reach  its  roots. 

It  follows  therefore  that  the  repression  of  the  right- 
eous is  hardly  the  practical  method  of  dealing  with 
the  drama  and  the  stage,  neither  being  an  intrinsic 
evil  like  sin.  It  is  necessary,  therefore,  that  the  righteous 
should  devise  some  other  way  than  repression  and 

40 


A  FORECAST  41 

annihilation,  and  discuss  practical  solutions  for  present 
difficulties.  Time  has  proven  their  attitude  ridiculous. 
Their  toleration  of  the  parish,  convent  and  college 
drama  has  provided  them  with  one  way  out  of  a  hope- 
less attitude,  and  the  recent  adoption  of  actors'  so- 
cieties by  the  hierarchy  of  England  and  Scotland, 
and  a  few  of  the  American  bishops,  has  provided  an- 
other. Some  pressing  considerations  here  presented 
may  induce  the  righteous  to  abandon  for  good  the 
policy  of  repression  and  annihilation. 

The  invention  of  the  motion-picture  has  made  the 
drama  universal  and  brought  it  into  every  home. 
Where  formerly  in  the  cities  fifteen  per  cent  of  the 
urban  population  and  eight  per  cent  of  the  rural 
element  frequented  the  theatre,  now  the  whole  world 
attends  the  motion-picture  drama.  In  Chicago,  for 
example,  fifteen  legitimate  theatres  house  the  ordinary 
drama,  while  four  hundred  theatres  cater  to  the  photo- 
play, in  every  corner  of  the  western  capital,  attracting 
alike  the  children  and  the  aged,  the  ignorant  and  the 
intelligent.  The  persistency  of  the  drama  has  thus 
been  multiplied  by  a  million.  This  new  invention 
means  that  the  people  will  love  the  drama  more  than 
ever;  some  believe  that  it  will  replace  the  newspaper; 
some  educators  are  preparing  to  teach  the  multitude 
that  way. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  entire  Christian 
world  would  turn  out  en  masse  to  a  photo-play  course 
in  Christian  history  and  doctrine  every  winter,  and 
get  a  better,  richer,  finer  understanding  of  religion 


42  THE  PARISH  THEATRE 

than  Sunday  schools,  average  preaching  and  desultory 
home  training  can  provide;  chiefly  because  the  photo- 
play is  so  brief,  so  vivid,  and  so  interesting.  Evidently 
such  an  invention  is  providential.  In  a  time  when 
telegraphy  and  photography  and  steam  and  electricity 
and  commerce  have  brought  the  human  race  so  closely 
together,  when  impressions  are  made  so  vividly  by 
the  press,  and  the  millions  live  as  much  in  one  day  as 
formerly  in  one  year,  methods  more  speedy  and  em- 
phatic than  the  old  ones  must  be  employed  in  dealing 
with  the  more  rapid  human  intellect  of  today.  Capital 
has  seen  this  through  its  love  of  profit,  and  has  taken 
up  the  new  inventions  powerfully. 

The  business  of  entertaining  the  people  has  now 
become  one  of  the  most  important,  because  so  profit- 
able, in  the  world.  But  the  drama  has  become  hope- 
lessly commercialized,  as  the  photo-drama  will  become 
in  due  time.  There  is  no  escape  for  the  drama  or  the 
photo-drama  from  the  grip  of  commercialism,  which 
is  of  the  brute  order,  without  intelligence  except  for 
profit,  sacrificing  all  things  for  cash.  In  the  drama 
it  excludes  the  Christian,  the  Catholic,  the  moral,  the 
universal,  the  original,  because  as  a  rule  these  things 
do  not  make  money.  It  includes  the  noxious,  the 
bestial,  the  criminal  and  the  vulgar,  because  too  often 
they  are  profitable.  The  intellectual  drama  presented 
successfully  by  a  commercialized  stage  earns  money 
on  some  other  plea  than  the  intellectual. 

It  is  this  hopeless  situation,  recognized  by  all  men, 
that  points  the  way  of  The  Parish  Theatre.  It  will 


A  FORECAST  43 

be  the  refuge  of  the  free  drama ;  that  is,  a  drama  com- 
posed without  thought  of  the  cash  profits,  based  on 
the  life  of  man,  natural  and  simple,  void  of  the  arti- 
ficial and  the  stagey.  It  will  provide  a  stage  for  the 
independent  company.  At  present  a  few  commercial 
nabobs  own  all  the  stages  in  the  country,  and  permit 
no  company  to  play  there  until  their  tax  has  been 
paid.  No  play  goes  on  the  boards  without  their  per- 
mission. These  hogs  are  like  their  animal  compeers, 
they  not  only  feed  in  the  trough,  but  they  live  in  it 
and  sleep  in  it,  lest  a  stray  dollar  should  reach  the  out- 
side. The  Parish  Theatre  will  naturally  be  the  home 
of  the  Catholic  drama  which  at  present  does  not  exist. 
I  am  aware  that  quite  a  number  do  not  desire  such 
a  drama,  being  content  with  Richelieu,  The  Sign  of 
the  Cross,  Quo  Vadis,  and  other  examples  of  secular 
handicraft.  But  the  very  fact  that  you  have  a  parish 
theatre  postulates  Catholic  plays,  Catholic  playwrights, 
as  it  does  Catholic  actors  and  audiences.  The  great 
Catholic  leaders  of  the  past  should  not  be  enclosed  in 
handsome  tombs,  or  merely  described  in  tomes  of 
history;  they  should  live  again  their  noble  lives  and 
splendid  deeds  on  their  own  people's  stage.  The  joys, 
sorrows,  tragedies,  problems,  humors,  glories,  of  the 
passing  day  should  not  be  allowed  to  pass  without 
useful  comment;  they  should  repeat  their  wonderful 
lessons  from  the  stage  to  the  heart.  There  would 
hardly  be  a  sound  reason  for  the  continuance  of  The 
Parish  Theatre  if  it  did  not  perform  this  happy  service 
for  the  past  and  the  present. 


44  THE  PARISH  THEATRE 

It  is  a  sorrowful  fact  that  the  beautiful  Catholic 
life  on  American  soil  for  three  centuries  has  only 
slight  record  in  history,  and  none  at  all  in  the  arts; 
no  painters,  poets,  novelists,  sculptors,  essayists, 
musicians,  record  even  a  few  fleeting  glimpses  of  its 
achievement  for  the  next  generation.  It  must  be  the 
task  of  the  drama  and  the  photo-drama  to  revive  the 
age  of  heroism,  when  the  missionaries  overran  this 
continent  side  by  side  with  the  explorers  and  the 
traders;  the  age  of  struggle  and  suffering  when  the 
emigrants  laid  the  foundations  of  our  faith  and  our 
prosperity;  the  periods  of  war  when  our  forefathers 
fought  for  their  country,  and  lost  not  only  life  but 
even  credit  for  their  sacrifice,  because  the  writing  of 
American  history  is  in  the  hands  of  the  prejudiced. 

I  think  it  more  than  likely  that  The  Parish  Theatre 
will  not  only  perform  this  necessary  duty,  but  that  it 
will  develop  in  more  surprising  directions.  It  would 
be  quite  feasible,  for  example,  to  establish  the  stock 
company  in  it;  that  is,  regular  companies  of  players, 
who  would  keep  right  on  for  years  producing  plays, 
and  could  exchange  theatres  for  the  sake  of  increasing 
public  interest.  The  stock  company  was  the  original 
fixed  dramatic  institution  as  opposed  to  the  old- 
fashioned  wandering  players.  It  saved  actors  the  wor- 
ries of  the  wandering  life  and  the  insecure  salary  and 
the  ever-threatening  danger  of  having  to  walk  back 
home.  It  vanished  before  the  present  system,  which 
has  unsettled  the  character  of  the  actor  more  than 
any  other  influence  in  his  present  uncertain  life. 


A  FORECAST  45 

It  would  be  feasible  also  to  develop  a  school  of  play- 
wrights for  The  Parish  Theatre,  and  give  them  a 
comfortable  living.  This  would  mean  the  right  sort 
of  plays,  better  plays,  the  founding  of  a  drama  reflecting 
the  people's  daily  life  of  thought  and  action,  and 
therefore  better  financial  returns.  A  royalty  of  five 
dollars  a  performance  would  be  no  burden  to  any 
company,  and  would  mean  a  respectable  reward  for 
the  labors  of  the  dramatist.  That  there  is  nothing 
far-fetched  in  this  forecast  may  be  seen  in  the  fact  that 
all  these  things  are  now  taking  place  in  a  haphazard 
way:  the  formation  of  stock  companies,  the  exchange 
of  theatres,  the  writing  of  special  plays  and  the  collect- 
ing of  royalties,  the  use  of  the  parish  theatre  by  travel- 
ling companies,  and  twenty  other  items  for  which  there 
is  no  space  here. 

It  may  be  hoped  that  this  sketch  of  the  new  insti- 
tution will  not  merely  arouse  interest  in  the  intelligent, 
but  will  also  soothe  the  ire  of  the  righteous  when  they 
discover  their  ancient  enemy  full  grown  in  the  midst 
of  the  household.  It  is  no  one's  fault.  The  great 
forces  of  society  work  right  on  in  the  face  of  theories 
and  theorists  unashamed.  The  Parish  Theatre  is  as 
ancient  as  the  Fathers  who  invented  it,  and  as  tough 
in  fibre  as  those  holy,  versatile  and  invincible  warriors 
of  the  primitive  day.  Writers  of  the  present  hour, 
who  strive  to  wield  the  polished  pen,  who  express 
their  fiercest  emotion  in  a  polite  sentence,  who  smile 
upon  the  bitterest  enemy,  because  it  is  the  fashion, 
long  for  the  ferocious  courage  of  temper  and  ink  which 


46  THE  PARISH  THEATRE 

names  men  and  deeds  rightly,  no  matter  what  their 
draperies  and  their  pretensions  and  their  dignities. 
This  repression  may  be  wise  and  even  proper,  but  it 
is  weakening.  The  Fathers  live  like  the  oak:  we  con- 
ventionally polite  creatures  perish  in  our  own  polite- 
ness. 


A  LIST  OF  PLAYS 

The  plays  in  this  list  have  one  conspicuous  merit: 
they  fit  the  amateur  stage,  and  for  the  time  being 
The  Parish  Theatre.  They  were  selected  and  listed 
to  save  the  amateur  managers  hours  of  labor  wading 
through  the  voluminous  lists  of  the  play  publishers. 
The  entire  list  can  be  read  in  one  hour.  The  manager 
has  but  to  determine  what  style  of  play  he  wants, 
and  the  catalogue  will  give  it  to  him  in  half  an  hour. 
The  ready  reference  list  will  even  shorten  the  time. 
Remember  that  this  catalogue  is  not  intended  for  the 
use  of  colleges,  convents,  clubs,  and  city  societies, 
but  for  The  Parish  Theatre,  and  its  distinctive  audience. 
The  custom  adopted  by  so  many  city  clubs  and  so- 
cieties, rehearsing  metropolitan  successes  of  last  year, 
is  not  for  The  Parish  Theatre,  an  institution  too  original 
to  become  an  echo  of  the  rather  limited  modern  stage. 
It  is  true  the  listed  plays  imitate  the  dramatic  themes 
and  forms  of  the  time,  which  cannot  now  be  avoided; 
but  the  plays  are  morally  sound,  simple  enough  to 
hold  simple  audiences,  and  within  the  capacity  of 
amateurs  and  their  stage.  The  great  variety  of  themes 
and  methods  will  enable  managers  to  use  this  list  for 
the  next  ten  years.  There  are  six  war  plays,  whose 
military  uniforms  and  scenes  always  interest  an  audi- 
ence; eleven  Irish  plays,  whose  humor  and  fun  are 

47 


48  THE  PARISH  THEATRE 

ever  welcome;  ten  western  plays,  of  the  mines,  the 
frontier,  and  the  Indians,  full  of  action,  gun  play, 
and  fine  scenery;  thirteen  rural  plays  of  domestic 
charm;  six  historical  plays  in  which  costume  and  elo- 
cution are  the  prime  requisites;  eleven  religious  or 
moral  plays,  in  which  the  spiritual  note  is  dominant; 
eleven  farces,  polite  or  boisterous;  twelve  entertain- 
ments, useful  to  drill  young  actors;  and  a  score  of  ro- 
mantic plays,  which  are  the  delight  of  amateur  actors 
and  their  audiences.  They  have  all  been  tested  by 
experience,  and  should  be  of  great  service  in  helping 
to  mould  the  future  of  The  Parish  Theatre. 

DRAMAS 
Along  the  Missouri. 

4  acts.  6  males.  3  females.  2  interiors.  1  ex- 
terior. Nearly  three  hours.  An  easy,  pleasant  play, 
with  no  difficulties  in  staging  or  costume,  with  a 
very  good  story.  Fine  old  farmer,  jolly  chore 
boy,  smooth  villain,  wronged  woman  and  a  pretty 
girl  in  the  leads.  Must  be  played  with  some 
polish  and  keenness  in  order  to  make  every  point 
tell.  Price,  25  cents. 

Andy  Blake. 

Irish  comedy.  2  acts.  4  males.  3  females.  An 
easy  and  pleasant  play,  runs  about  an  hour  and 
a  half,  may  be  lengthened  by  introducing  songs 
and  business  for  Andy,  requires  effective  costuming 
and  make-up  for  two  character  old  men,  and  two 


A  LIST  OF  PLAYS  49 

old  ladies.  Andy  should  be  of  first-class  caliber 
as  he  carries  the  play.  Price,  15  cents. 

Bishop's  Candlesticks,  The 

1-act  drama.  3  males.  2  females.  An  effective 
play  in  costume.  Runs  about  45  minutes.  Re- 
quires good  actors  and  fine  make-up.  Suitable  for 
a  curtain-raiser,  or  for  a  club  entertainment.  Suited 
to  display  fthe  talents  of  capable  amateurs.  Price, 
25  cents. 

Bill  the  Coachman. 

Polite  farce  in  3  acts.  5  males.  4  females.  Plays 
two  hours.  An  unusually  good  drama  for  ama- 
teurs, full  of  action  and  wit.  The  characters 
include  an  old  man,  of  strong  character,  an  old 
woman,  two  lively  young  ladies,  a  dude  with  a 
lisp,  a  young  coachman  and  a  young  gentleman. 
The  scenery  is  easy.  The  costumes  are  modern 
and  can  be  made  as  simple  or  as  gorgeous  as 
necessary.  The  acting  must  be  good,  swift,  and 
therefore  good  actors  and  fine  rehearsals  are 
necessary.  Price,  25  cents. 

Burley's  Ranch. 

Western  drama.  3  acts.  10  males.  4  females.  A 
remarkably  fine  play,  demanding  experienced 
amateurs.  One  scene  only.  Characters  include 
two  Indian  chiefs,  three  ranchmen,  two  military 
men,  a  reporter,  a  Chinese,  a  Mexican,  an  old  lady, 
an  Indian  girl,  and  two  young  women.  Having 


50  THE  PARISH  THEATRE 

but  one  scene  it  is  easy  to  stage.  However,  all  the 
effects  depend  upon  the  acting  and  the  general 
stage  business,  upon  the  costuming  and  the  light- 
ing, and  the  innumerable  details  which  make  up  a 
modern  drama.  Therefore  it  is  to  be  played  only 
by  experienced  companies.  Plays  three  hours. 
Price,  25  cents. 

Colleen  Bawn,  The 

Irish  drama.  3  acts.  9  males.  6  females.  Plays 
three  hours.  It  is  written  in  many  scenes,  de- 
mands a  great  variety  of  costume,  and  has  a 
cave  scene,  with  a  rescue  of  a  drowning  girl, 
which  an  ordinary  stage  could  not  handle.  It  has 
been  played  by  amateur  companies  with  great 
success,  but  they  were  companies  with  large  ex- 
perience. It  should  not  be  attempted  by  novices. 
It  goes  well  with  parish  audiences,  and  when  the 
cave  scene  can  be  well  staged  it  is  a  tremendous 
success.  Price,  25  cents. 

Celebrated  Case,  A. 

Costume  drama  in  five  acts.  7  males.  5  females. 
Plays  three  hours.  This  is  also  a  play  for  experi- 
enced and  seasoned  amateurs.  It  is  splendidly 
costumed  after  the  fashions  of  Louis  XIV.  The 
first  act  is  a  prologue,  and  the  second  act  is  twenty 
years  later,  so  that  the  make-up  artist  will  be  in 
demand  to  change  faces  accordingly.  It  is  not 
difficult  to  stage,  and  has  been  played  by  amateurs 
all  over  the  country.  It  is  highly  sensational  and 


A  LIST  OF  PLAYS  51 

emotional,  and  will  give  actors  all  that  they  can 
do.  Price,  25  cents. 

Corner  Store,  The. 

4  acts.  6  males.  3  females.  2  interiors.  Plays 
over  two  hours.  With  such  characters  as  a  wild 
orphan  asylum  girl,  a  Dutch  policeman,  an  Irish 
mail-carrier,  a  colored  loafer  of  a  genial  nature, 
Uncle  Eli,  the  keeper  of  the  little  store,  his  good 
son  and  beautiful  ward  and  loving  wife,  he  would 
be  a  poor  dramatist  who  failed  to  make  a  good 
play.  This  one  is  rollicking,  yet  tender,  and  the 
scenes  in  and  about  the  store  are  dramatic  and 
funny  together.  It  goes  very  well  with  an  audience. 
Price,  25  cents. 

Country  Kid,  A. 

Rural  comedy.  3  acts.  6  males.  3  females.  Plays 
two  hours.  This  is  the  usual  country  drama  with 
sensations  in  plenty.  Easy  to  costume,  to  stage, 
and  to  rehearse,  it  will  suit  beginners  and  also 
appeal  to  the  more  experienced.  The  characters 
include  the  old  farmer,  the  country  boob,  the 
tough,  the  tramp,  the  soubrette,  the  old  woman, 
the  villain,  and  the  juvenile  leads.  Price,  25 
cents. 

Deacon,  The. 

Rural  play.  5  acts.  8  males.  6  females.  3  ex- 
terior. 2  interior.  Plays  nearly  three  hours.  The 
light-hearted  Deacon  carries  the  play  with  his 


52  THE  PARISH  THEATRE 

wit,  humor  and  shrewdness.  The  drama  is  built 
on  ancient  but  effective  lines,  and  makes  a  good 
test  in  melodrama  for  any  amateur  company. 
The  ladies  in  particular  get  a  fine  opportunity. 
The  play  is  full  of  bits  for  all  characters,  and  so 
demands  much  rehearsing.  It  makes  good  enter- 
tainment, and  is  the  kind  of  a  play  to  run  for  five 
nights  and  a  matinee.  Price,  25  cents. 

Down  the  Black  Canon. 

Mining  drama.  4  acts.  11  males.  3  females. 
Plays  two  hours.  Any  number  of  supers.  3  outdoor 
scenes,  one  plain  interior.  The  characters  include 
mine  owners,  poets,  vigilantes,  miners,  and  a  dumb 
boy.  The  incidents  are  highly  melodramatic.  A 
play  for  experienced  amateurs,  and  able  to  play 
for  a  week  to  the  average  audience.  Full  of  color 
and  energy,  but  must  be  rehearsed  with  care 
and  finish.  Price,  25  cents. 

Dust  of  the  Earth,  The. 

4  acts.  6  males.  4  females.  2  interiors.  1  exterior. 
Plays  over  two  hours.  This  is  a  story  of  Cinderella 
at  Maple  Farm,  and  how  vainly  her  Uncle  David 
sought  to  shield  her  from  the  steady  but  secret 
persecution  of  his  wife  and  daughter.  The  humor 
of  the  piece  is  provided  by  the  village  gossip  and 
the  farm  boy,  and  an  air  of  mystery  and  promise 
is  given  to  it  by  the  irregular  appearance  of 
Wandering  Tom  and  his  devoted  colored  servant. 
The  play  may  be  classed  high  for  its  display  of 


A  LIST  OF  PLAYS  53 

all  the  necessary  qualities  of  a  parish  drama. 
Price,  25  cents. 

Enlisted  for  the  War. 

3  acts.  7  males.  3  females.  3  interiors.  Three  hours 
nearly.  Easy  to  produce.  Costumes  local  and 
military.  A  love  story,  with  just  enough  of  war 
in  it  to  be  interesting.  A  model  play  for  The  Parish 
Theatre,  because  it  will  interest  the  actors,  give 
them  much  to  do  without  overtasking  them,  and 
please  the  average  parish  audience.  Price,  15  cents. 

Everyman. 

Morality  play.  1  act.  1  scene.  18  characters. 
Plays  one  hour  and  a  half.  The  best  sermon  on 
death  that  ever  was  preached.  As  produced  by 
Ben  Greet,  with  all  the  usual  business,  it  is  able 
to  interest  any  audience,  cultured  or  common. 
While  having  only  one  stage  setting,  this  set- 
ting must  be  carefully  prepared.  It  can  be 
done  from  the  ordinary  materials.  The  acting 
is  simple,  but  must  be  clear  and  effective.  The 
costumes  are  English  of  the  sixteenth  century. 
The  play  is  a  noble  medium  to  train  a  company, 
to  elevate  taste  in  the  drama,  and  to  illustrate 
what  the  drama  is  able  to  do  in  skilful  hands. 
Price,  50  cents. 

Everyyouth. 

Morality  play  of  the  same  type.  3  scenes.  7  males. 
6  females.  Plays  one  hour  and  a  half.  Modern 


54  THE  PARISH  THEATRE 

costumes.  Very  easy  to  stage,  having  only  the 
one  set  for  the  three  scenes.  Requires  characters 
who  can  look  the  parts  as  well  as  act  them.  Has 
all  the  effectiveness  of  Everyman  but  lacks  its 
nobility  of  scene  and  expression.  Fine  vehicle  for 
a  company  that  likes  training,  and  a  good  lesson 
for  all.  Price,  25  cents. 

Everysoul. 

Morality  play  describing  man's  journey  towards 
happiness.  1  scene.  17  characters.  More  elaborate 
than  the  preceding,  full  of  choruses  and  dancing 
scenes,  and  demanding  the  same  care  in  the 
staging  and  rehearsal.  Price,  50  cents. 

Experience. 

Morality  play  describing  the  price  which  man  pays 
for  experience.  6  scenes.  Any  number  of  char- 
acters, which  must  be  well  played.  Costuming 
modern  but  elegant.  Can  be  played  only  by 
expert  companies.  Most  effective  with  any  sort 
of  audience.  Great  moral  lesson  without  offensive 
scenes.  Royalty  play.  Price,  $1. 

End  of  the  Rainbow,  At  the. 

College  comedy.  3  acts.  6  males.  14  females. 
Plays  over  two  hours.  Originally  written  for  a  girls' 
institution^  which  explains  the  number  of  female 
characters.  A  lively  modern  school  comedy, 
which  any  audience  can  enjoy.  Easy  to  stage, 
and  easy  to  act,  since  the  actors  have  only  to  be 


A  LIST  OF  PLAYS  55 

themselves.  The  interior  scenes  are  highly  orna- 
mented. The  costumes  can  be  as  elaborate  as 
desired.  Always  successful  play.  Price,  25  cents. 

Erin  Go  Bragh. 

Irish  drama.  3  acts.  5  males.  4  females.  Plays 
two  hours.  Old-fashioned  play,  but  full  of  incident, 
with  good  characters,  and  will  make  a  full  even- 
ing's entertainment.  Especially  suited  to  begin- 
ners. Price,  25  cents. 

Fabiola. 

Christian  drama  of  the  martyrs.  5  acts.  12  scenes. 
8  males.  6  females.  Plays  two  hours.  Roman 
costumes  of  the  third  century.  More  of  a  curiosity 
than  a  play.  Adapted  from  Wiseman's  story  of 
the  same  name,  and  a  play  by  Canon  Oakley. 
Must  be  costumed  with  care,  and  .played  with 
delicacy.  Within  the  compass  of  fairly  experi- 
enced amateurs,  and  has  a  great  effect  upon  parish 
audiences.  Price,  25  cents. 

Farm  Folks. 

4  acts.  4  males.  7  females.  2  interiors.  1  exterior. 
Plays  over  two  hours.  One  of  the  very  few  dramas 
which  can  be  recommended  heartily  to  The  Parish 
Theatre.  It  is  commonly  known  as  an  "atmos- 
phere" play.  While  very  simple  in  character 
and  incident,  it  is  charged  with  feeling  and  senti- 
ment; the  story  is  highly  dramatic,  and  the  de- 
tails of  scenery,  stage  setting,  lights,  costume 


56  THE  PARISH  THEATRE 

and  make-up  must  be  looked  after  with  great 
care.  When  that  is  done  the  audience  becomes 
entranced  by  a  picture  of  simple  life  which  leaves 
a  perfume  in  the  memory.  Price,  25  cents. 

Frozen  Trail,  The. 

Alaskan  drama.  4  acts.  8  males.  3  females. 
Plays  two  hours  and  a  half.  First  two  acts  in- 
terior and  picturesque  scenes  of  an  Alaskan  winter. 
The  other  acts  summer  scenes  on  the  Hudson.  A 
very  striking  drama  with  an  interesting  plot, 
varied  characters,  and  exciting  incidents.  Must 
be  played  by  experienced  actors,  and  the  stage 
manager  must  exert  himself  to  make  the  first 
two  scenes  thoroughly  Alaskan  and  wintry.  Price, 
25  cents. 

Four-Leaved  Shamrock,  The. 

Irish  modern  comedy.  3  acts.  3  males.  4  females. 
Plays  nearly  two  hours.  Entirely  modern  in  form; 
introduces  an  American  woman  journalist,  and 
avoids  all  the  familiar  scenes  and  methods  of  the 
typical  Irish  play.  It  is  a  quiet  drama,  but  with 
an  ending  so  unexpected  and  startling  as  to  rouse 
intense  interest.  Price,  15  cents. 

Heart  of  a  Shamrock,  The. 

Irish-American  drama.  3  acts.  4  males.  4  females. 
Plays  two  hours.  Entirely  out  of  the  old  rut,  and 
very  modern.  One  scene  for  the  three  acts.  Lead- 
ing character  a  priest,  living  with  his  brothers  in 


\  LIST  OF  PLAYS  57 

a  wild  western  district.  The  younger  brother  goes 
off  the  track,  and  is  threatened  with  prison  and 
lynching.  The  scenes  are  very  quiet  but  very 
intense,  and  require  first-class  acting.  The  play 
is  so  different  from  the  average  Irish  play  that 
it  may  be  classed  as  a  novelty.  Ordinary  actors 
can  play  it,  but  its  success  in  crude  hands  would 
be  doubtful.  Price,  25  cents. 

Hazel  Kirke. 

Domestic  drama.  4  acts.  9  males.  4  females.  Plays 
nearly  three  hours.  A  famous  play  still  produced 
by  stock  companies.  It  ran  for  a  year  in  New 
York.  Only  the  best  and  most  experienced  ama- 
teurs should  attempt  it.  The  scenery  is  simple, 
but  rich,  and  the  costuming  has  to  be  effective 
and  often  elegant  in  modern  fashion.  Dunstan 
Kirke,  the  old  miller,  is  the  leading  character, 
and  must  be  finely  played.  Pittacus  Green,  the 
comedian  part,  demands  the  highest  talent.  De- 
mands as  great  rehearsing,  and  should  be  played 
for  a  week.  Royalty  play.  Price,  50  cents. 

Home  Ties. 

4  acts.  4  males.  5  females.  1  interior.  Plays  over 
two  hours.  A  very  easy  play  to  stage  because  it 
has  only  one  scene.  All  the  characters  are  decent 
people.  Two  young  women,  two  character  old 
women,  colored  girl  of  the  Topsy  order,  two  fine 
young  men,  one  dignified  old  man,  one  eccentric 
old  man.  The  story  is  sweet  and  stimulating, 


58  THE  PARISH  THEATRE 

and  the  play  depends  entirely  upon  producing  the 
thing  called  atmosphere.  This  means  a  pretty 
and  accurate  scene,  careful  make-up  and  costume, 
and  a  skilful  display  of  quiet  but  keen  emotion. 
Price,  25  cents. 

In  Plum  Valley. 

4  acts.  6  males.  4  females.  2  exterior.  1  interior. 
Plays  two  hours.  This  rural  play  is  a  case  of  let- 
ting the  weasel  among  the  chickens.  A  clever 
criminal  drops  into  a  peaceful  farming  community, 
and  proceeds  to  rob  them  and  deceive  them  in 
every  way.  It  is  doubtful  if  country  people  are 
so  easily  fooled  and  fleeced.  However,  the  crim- 
inal gives  opportunity  to  Uncle  Jared  and  his 
people  to  display  their  shrewd,  humorous,  lovable 
natures,  and  the  play  will  be  found  interesting  to 
actors  and  audiences.  Price,  25  cents. 

In  the  Shadow  of  the  Rockies. 

Wild  West  drama.  3  acts.  8  males.  3  females. 
Plays  two  hours.  A  lively  and  simple  drama  of 
a  mining  town.  Easily  staged.  Suitable  to  inex- 
perienced players,  who  can  make  a  good  deal  out 
of  it.  Price,  25  cents. 

Just  Plain  Folks. 

3  acts.  6  males.  4  females.  One  set  of  scenery. 
Two  and  a  half  hours.  A  charming  drama  of 
simple  life  in  New  England,  in  which  atmosphere 
and  character  are  the  dominant  factors.  The 


A  LIST  OF  PLAYS  59 

old  Doctor,  his  sweet  wife,  the  circus  girl  waif, 
the  stolid  and  faithful  servant  girl,  the  rough 
circus  man,  and  the  country  boy  who  falls  from 
grace  are  beautifully  drawn.  While  any  ordinary 
well  trained  company  can  play  it,  the  stage 
management  will  have  to  be  of  the  best  in  order 
to  secure  the  necessary  color.  Price,  25  cents. 

Kathleen  Mavourneen. 

Irish  drama.  4  acts.  11  males.  4  females.  Plays 
two  hours.  This  is  an  old  favorite.  The  scenery 
is  simple  but  picturesque.  The  costumes  as  usual. 
Kathleen  has  two  suitors,  a  rich  man  and  a  poor 
man.  She  dreams  that  she  marries  the  rich  man, 
and  passes  through  many  trials  that  end  in  at- 
tempted murder;  but  just  as  murder  reaches  her, 
she  awakes  with  a  much  changed  mind,  marries 
the  right  man,  and  all  is  well.  A  charming  play  of 
romantic  interest,  easily  produced,  but  requiring 
good  rehearsing  and  fine  stage  management. 
Price,  15  cents. 

Little  Lord  Fauntleroy. 

3  acts.  8  males.  3  females.  Plays  two  and  a  half 
hours.  While  easy  to  produce  each  actor  has  much 
to  memorize,  and  the  parts  mostly  require  so 
much  distinction  of  dress  and  manner,  that  it 
is  a  play  for  the  experienced  only.  The  leading 
character  is  a  boy  of  twelve  and  is  usually  played 
by  a  girl,  as  few  boys  can  act  naturally  in  such  a 
part.  The  story,  however,  is  so  sweet  and  strong 


60  THE  PARISH  THEATRE 

that  it  carries  even  poor  amateurs  through  suc- 
cessfully. Royalty  play.  Price,  25  cents. 

The  Little  Princess. 

3  acts.  6  males.  15  females.  3  interiors.  Two  and 
a  half  hours.   A  play  of  the  same  character  as  the 
previous,  but    more  easily  acted,  if  a  little  girl 
of  twelve  can  be  found  to  act  the  leading  part. 
The  story  is  so  strong  and  sweet,  and  the  charac- 
ters so  varied,  that  a  parish  audience  is  easily 
carried  away  by  it.    It  requires  long  and  patient 
rehearsing,  and  the  best  stage  management.     It 
has  not  been  as  popular  as  its  predecessor,  but 
deserves  to  be.    Royalty  play.    Price,  25  cents. 

Lone  Tree  Mine. 

5  acts.  10  males.  4  females.  3  exteriors.  1  interior. 
Nearly  three  hours.  A  lively  and  pathetic  melo- 
drama. Scenes  laid  among  the  mines  of  Colorado. 
Easily  played,  but  demanding  great  variety  of 
acting  and  good  rehearsing.  Sure  to  delight  a 
parish  audience.  Old  man  lead,  strong  villain, 
humorous  Irishman,  eccentric  Chinaman,  char- 
acteristic miners,  lively  soubrette,  and  pathetic 
women.  The  story  is  highly  romantic.  Price,  25 
cents. 

Liberty  Corners. 

4  acts.    12  males.    5  females.    2  interiors.    1  ex- 
terior.    Plays  nearly  three  hours.     A  humorous 
rural  drama  of  a  high  standard.     The  language 
very  good.     Easily  staged.     The  business  is  so 


A  LIST  OF  PLAYS  61 

varied  as  to  demand  good  actors  and  long  re- 
hearsing. Young  man  and  gay  soubrette  in  the 
lead.  Odd  country  characters  in  abundance, 
requiring  extra  good  make-up.  Will  bring  out 
the  entire  strength  of  a  first-class  amateur  com- 
pany. Sure  to  delight  a  parish  audience.  Price, 
25  cents. 

Mountain  Waif,  The. 

4  acts.  9  males.  3  females.  2  interiors.  1  ex- 
terior. Plays  nearly  three  hours.  This  is  old- 
fashioned  melodrama  of  the  mining  camp,  with 
plenty  of  incident,  striking  scenes,  red-handed 
villains,  rough  boys,  and  vivacious  women.  It 
becomes  burlesque  easily,  unless  care  is  taken  to 
dress  each  part  well,  to  have  good  wigs  and  fine 
make-up,  and  to  rehearse  carefully.  When  well 
done  it  is  a  fine  presentation  of  frontier  life  and 
pleases  parish  audiences.  Price,  25  cents. 

Mary,  Queen  of  Scots. 

2  acts.  7  males.  7  females.  Old-fashioned  ro- 
mantic costume  drama,  concerned  with  the  escape 
of  Queen  Mary  from  Loch  Leven  castle.  Over 
two  hours.  Language  stilted  but  fine.  Incidents 
beautiful  and  exciting.  The  six  scenes  demand 
much  shifting  of  scenery,  and  both  scenery  and 
costumes  must  be  good.  However,  the  play  is 
easy  to  manage.  Useful  for  parish  companies  to 
test  their  training,  and  very  popular  with  audi- 
ences because  of  Mary  Stuart.  Price,  15  cents. 


62  THE  PARISH  THEATRE 

Man*  from  Maine,  The. 

5  acts.  9  males.  3  females.  4  sets  of  scenery. 
Nearly  two  hours.  This  belongs  to  the  criminal 
drama.  It  is  a  swift,  thrilling  melodrama,  with  a 
cool  gambler,  a  dashing  adventuress,  a  few  toughs, 
an  upright  fool,  and  the  usual  lovers,  all  grace- 
fully directed  to  their  proper  finish  by  the  level- 
headed man  from  Maine.  Such  a  play  goes  well 
with  audiences  for  a  change.  It  is  also  a  good 
test  of  a  company,  and  will  excite  their  interest. 
Demands  quick  action  and  first-class  ensemble 
playing.  Price,  25  cents. 

Miss  Mosher  of  Colorado. 

4  acts.  5  males.  3  females.  Two  hours.  2  ex- 
teriors and  1  interior.  Easily  staged.  This  is  a 
sentimental  drama,  very  sugary,  with  a  good 
comedy  element  in  two  old  men  and  a  butler. 
The  scenes  are  handsome  and  romantic.  The 
invasion  of  Lenox  society  by  a  hustling  Westerner 
booming  his  real  estate  is  the  theme,  and  it  is 
used  to  contrast  the  simple  life  and  ideas  with 
the  complex  life  of  society  and  the  absence  of 
ideas.  Must  be  played  by  intelligent  and  experi- 
enced actors  to  get  across.  Price,  25  cents. 

New  Partner,  The. 

3  acts.  8  males.  4  females.  2  interiors.  Plays 
nearly  three  hours.  A  modern  class  drama  of  the 
first  rank.  Gives  a  glimpse  of  the  labor  and 
capital  struggle  in  a  pleasant  way.  Very  intense 


A  LIST  OF  PLAYS  63 

and  yet  natural,  easy  to  costume  and  stage,  but 
must  be  dressed  to  the  limit  of  elegance.  There- 
fore not  to  be  played  by  a  second-rate  or  inex- 
perienced company.  Full  of  humor  and  every 
part  worth  while.  Royalty  play.  Price,  25  cents. 

Noble  Outcast,  A. 

4  acts.  4  males.  3  females.  2  interiors.  1  exterior. 
Plays  over  two  hours.  A  society  melodrama  of 
the  quiet  kind.  The  lost  daughter  is  claimed  at 
the  critical  moment  by  her  father,  who  is  un- 
aware that  he  is  really  her  father.  The  thing 
could  hardly  happen  in  real  life,  but  the  author 
has  made  it  plausible,  and  the  story  will  tell  with 
the  parish  audience.  It  is  easy  to  stage,  full  of 
sobs  and  villainy,  with  a  humorous  light  fur- 
nished by  the  tramp  father,  and  a  most  happy 
ending.  Price,  25  cents. 

Oak  Farm. 

3  acts.  7  males.  3  females.  One  set  of  scenery 
interior.  Plays  over  two  hours.  This  is  one  of  the 
ideal  plays  for  The  Parish  Theatre.  The  genial 
old  farmer,  his  clever  son,  the  charming  members 
of  the  family,  the  funny  and  vicious  neighbors, 
the  cozy  home,  the  sweetness  of  the  domestic 
virtues,  are  all  set  forth  in  the  simplest  fashion, 
yet  with  intense  feeling.  It  is  a  play  of  atmosphere, 
which  means  that  the  stage  must  be  well  set  for 
the  single  scene,  the  make-up  be  perfect,  and  the 
lighting  first-class.  The  Christmas  scene  is  simply 


64  THE  PARISH  THEATRE 

delightful,  and  the  parish  company  which  can 
produce  this  play  to  perfection  will  deserve  the 
medal  of  excellence.  Price,  25  cents. 

The  Octoroon. 

5  acts.  14  males.  6  females.  1  interior.  2  ex- 
terior scenes.  Over  two  hours.  This  famous 
drama  once  required  an  immense  stage  for  pro- 
duction. It  can  now  be  played  on  a  small  parish 
stage.  Written  with  many  scenes,  it  can  be  ar- 
ranged for  one  scene  to  an  act.  Most  of  the  char- 
acters appear  only  once.  It  is  a  wonderful  drawing 
card  for  parish  audiences,  and  rouses  the  acting 
spirit  in  parish  actors.  The  auction  of  the  slaves 
requires  good  stage  management,  and  the  burning 
of  the  dock  and  the  steamer  requires  careful 
treatment,  but  they  are  not  beyond  the  power  of 
the  average  company.  Plays  of  this  sort  should 
be  played  at  stated  times  to  keep  up  the  interest 
of  actors  and  audiences.  Price,  25  cents. 

On  the  King's  Threshold. 

1  act.  12  males.  4  females.  1  scene.  Poetic  drama 
lasting  one  hour  and  a  half  or  more.  Seanchan, 
the  Irish  poet,  has  been  insulted  by  the  King, 
Guaire,  and  determines  to  die  of  starvation  on 
the  steps  of  the  palace,  a  method  of  calling  the 
attention  of  the  people  to  the  dishonor  done 
poetry  by  the  king,  and  of  punishing  the  insulter. 
In  turn  the  pupils  of  the  poet,  his  townsmen, 
the  church,  the  state,  the  army,  the  courtiers, 


A  LIST  OF  PLAYS  65 

and  the  royal  family  appear  before  the  starving 
poet,  beseeching  him  to  accept  the  situation  and 
live.  At  last  comes  his  heart's  darling.  The  poet 
rejects  them  all.  Then  King  Guaire  puts  a  halter 
on  the  neck  of  every  pupil  and  threatens  them 
with  death  if  their  master  yields  not.  A  most 
striking  and  simple  costume  drama  of  the  Irish 
legendary  time.  Found  in  Yeats's  works.  Price, 
one  dollar. 

Prisoner  of  Andersonville. 

Military  comedy.  4  acts.  10  males.  4  females. 
3  exteriors.  1  interior.  Plays  over  two  hours. 
This  is  a  high  class  play,  because  the  people  are 
of  a  refined  and  well-bred  kind;  therefore  it  de- 
mands skill  and  experience  from  amateurs.  It 
treats  of  southern  life,  in  a  plantation  home  and 
in  the  camp,  and  provides  plenty  of  good  character 
work.  The  comedy  is  of  more  importance  than  the 
military.  It  would  not  suit  actors  wishing  to  present 
a  lively  and  high-colored  war  drama,  in  which 
military  uproar  and  red  fire  are  needed.  Its  mili- 
tary sentiment  is  intense,  uniforms  are  numerous, 
and  no  offence  will  be  given  to  either  North  or 
South.  Price,  25  cents. 

Pottersvffle  Post  Office,  At  the. 

Rural  play.  3  acts.  9  males.  8  females.  1  in- 
terior. Plays  two  hours.  The  play  is  of  the  farce- 
comedy  order.  It  is  easy  to  stage,  because  of  its 
one  scene,  the  country  post  office.  It  requires 


66  THE  PARISH  THEATRE 

minute  care  in  costume  and  make-up,  because 
eight  of  the  characters  are  amusing  and  peculiar 
people.  Rehearsals  will  have  to  be  numerous. 
When  well  done  it  is  a  side-splitting  affair,  and 
will  win  any  parish  audience.  The  village  express- 
man, the  postmaster,  the  spiritualist  lecturer,  the 
constable,  the  tightfisted  deacon,  the  escaped 
lunatic,  in  contrast  with  the  summer  boarders 
from  the  city  form  a  splendid  balance.  Price,  25 
cents. 

Rip  Van  Winkle. 

Romantic  drama.  2  acts.  8  males.  3  females. 
Many  scenes.  Plays  two  hours.  The  version  of 
this  story  played  by  Joe  Jefferson  is  a  royalty 
play,  and  more  effective  for  presentation.  The 
present  version  is  old-fashioned  drama,  in  many 
scenes;  but  it  can  be  easily  arranged  in  a  three- 
act  form,  and  will  go  very  smoothly.  It  is  a  cos- 
tume play  of  the  Dutch  period  in  New  York. 
Rip  Van  Winkle  is  the  chief  character  and  his 
transformation  from  a  young  man  to  the  whisk- 
ered sleeper  of  the  Catskill  Mountains  demands 
a  good  actor.  It  wins  the  parish  audience  promptly 
by  its  humor  and  its  weirdness.  Price,  15  cents. 

Richelieu. 

Romantic  drama.  5  acts.  10  males.  2  females. 
4  interiors.  1  exterior.  Plays  nearly  three  hours. 
This  famous  play  is  of  course  too  difficult  for  the 
average  company,  but  it  should  be  attempted 


A  LIST  OF  PLAYS  67 

occasionally  by  experienced  and  capable  players. 
It  is  a  great  tribute  to  the  Church  no  less  than  to 
the  clever  Cardinal  who  made  France.  There  are 
two  arrangements  of  the  drama,  one  for  colleges, 
characters  all  males,  and  one  for  The  Parish  The- 
atre, the  present.  This  has  been  simplified  in 
scenes  and  dialogue,  to  suit  amateurs.  The  cos- 
tuming must  be  fine,  and  the  leading  actor  a  good 
declaimer.  Price,  50  cents. 

Roses  of  St.  Dorothy,  The. 

Religious  play.  6  acts.  4  males.  5  females.  2 
interiors.  1  exterior.  Play  about  one  and  a  half 
hours.  The  acts  are  short,  and  deal  with  the 
martyrdom  of  St.  Dorothy  in  a  simple  and  poetic 
way.  Careful  costuming  and  clear,  beautiful  ut- 
terance of  the  lines  will  be  the  needs  of  this  drama, 
along  with  good  lighting  of  the  stage.  The  legend 
of  the  drama  is  concerned  with  the  story  of  the 
roses  which  St.  Dorothy  sent  by  the  hands  of  an 
angel  to  the  young  skeptic  who  smiled  at  her  belief 
in  a  celestial  world.  Plays  of  this  kind  must  be 
presented  with  great  care,  if  they  are  to  have 
proper  expression  and  effect  Price,  50  cents. 

Robert  Emmet. 

Romantic  Irish  drama.  3  acts.  10  males.  2  fe- 
males. 2  interiors.  2  exteriors.  Plays  two  hours. 
This  historical  play  has  been  a  favorite  with  ama- 
teurs for  forty  years,  and  deserves  a  permanent 
place  in  The  Parish  Theatre.  The  new  version  by 


68  THE  PARISH  THEATRE 

Mr.  Charles  Townsend  is  much  easier  to  stage 
than  the  old  one.  Being  a  costume  play,  care 
must  be  used  in  that  matter.  Being  a  tragedy, 
too,  the  atmosphere  must  be  in  tune  with  it,  and 
considerable  discretion  should  be  exercised  in  se- 
lecting the  actors,  so  that  physically  they  may  fit 
the  parts.  Price,  15  cents. 

Stubborn  Motor  Car,  The. 

Western  drama.  3  acts.  7  males.  4  females.  1  in- 
terior. Plays  over  two  hours.  The  name  suggests 
a  motor  car  play,  but  it  isn't.  The  car  breaks 
down  near  the  ranch  of  Jim  Page,  and  brings  on 
the  incidents  of  the  drama.  The  cowboy  hero,  the 
pompous  Englishman,  the  Apache  girl,  the  German 
chauffeur,  the  Chinaman,  the  business  man,  the 
outlaw,  and  the  girls,  form  a  cast  which  interests 
both  actors  and  audiences.  The  plot  is  simple  but 
effective.  The  interest  is  intense,  the  comic  situ- 
ations are  good,  and  the  acting  required  is  of  the 
natural  kind.  This  demands  the  best  kind  of  re- 
hearsing. Price,  25  cents. 

Shaun  Aroon. 

Modern  Irish  drama.  3  acts.  7  males.  3  females. 
3  interiors.  Plays  two  hours.  This  play  portrays 
simple  Irish  life  of  today,  without  allusion  to 
political  troubles.  It  is  built  up  on  the  old  lines, 
but  brought  into  line  with  modern  taste.  It  lacks 
the  emphatic  Irish  feeling,  and  gets  colorless  here 
and  there,  but  a  good  company  will  correct  these 


A  LIST  OF  PLAYS  69 

deficiencies  and  make  it  successful.  Requires 
care  in  make-up  and  costuming.  Price,  25  cents. 

Time  of  His  Life,  The. 

A  farce.  3  acts.  6  males.  3  females.  1  interior. 
Plays  two  hours.  One  of  the  funniest  farces  ever 
written.  With  one  exception  the  characters  are 
all  ordinary  people.  This  exception  is  a  remark- 
able imaginary  invalid.  The  fun  starts  from  Tom's 
prank  of  serving  as  butler  at  his  sister's  table,  in 
the  guise  of  the  regular  butler,  old  colored  Uncle 
Tom,  who  happens  to  be  absent  for  the  evening. 
As  Tom's  girl,  and  the  girl's  father,  and  Tom's 
brother-in-law  drop  in  that  evening,  the  situation 
becomes  critical  for  the  trickster.  The  scenes  are 
side-splitting.  Characters  and  scenes  are  so  simple 
and  natural,  that  very  good  rehearsal  will  be  re- 
quired. Price,  25  cents. 

Tompkins'  Hired  Man. 

Rural  drama.  3  acts.  4  males.  4  females.  1  in- 
terior. Plays  two  hours.  While  easy  to  stage  with 
its  single  scene,  this  play  requires  a  minute  stage- 
setting.  It  is  a  good  sample  of  the  play  having 
atmosphere.  The  kitchen  of  a  farmhouse  does  not 
suggest  the  dramatic,  but  this  play  is  full  of  drama 
and  sentiment  too.  It  has  to  be  played  as  simply 
as  real  life,  and  yet  its  tremendous  effects  must  be 
brought  out.  Two  middle-aged  men  and  the  wife 
of  one  are  the  chief  actors.  The  wife  has  palmed 
off  a  strange  child  on  her  husband  as  their  own, 


70  THE  PARISH  THEATRE 

and  later  bears  him  a  child  who  must  take  second 
place  in  his  affections  and  in  the  inheritance. 
Who  was  this  child?  How  is  the  situation  to  be 
solved?  The  play  answers  these  questions  finely. 
Price,  25  cents. 

Uncle  Rube. 

Rural  play.  4  acts.  8  males.  3  females.  2  in- 
teriors. Plays  over  two  hours.  One  of  the  best 
of  its  kind.  Uncle  Rube  is  a  fine  type,  and  will 
satisfy  any  actor.  Three  elements  compose  this 
play:  the  rural,  the  melodramatic,  and  the  senti- 
mental. Therefore  it  provides  opportunities  for 
the  comedian,  for  the  heavy  character,  and  for 
the  sweetness  which  goes  with  domestic  life.  To 
keep  the  three  harmonious,  good  stage  manage- 
ment will  be  needed.  The  characters  are  a  breezy 
western  girl,  an  amusing  soubrette,  a  lively  matron, 
a  dyspeptic  skinflint,  his  thievish  son,  a  courageous 
dude,  a  highbred  hero,  three  ordinary  men,  and 
Uncle  Rube.  The  climaxes  are  powerful.  Price, 
25  cents. 

Up  Vermont  Way. 

Rural  play.  4  acts.  8  males.  4  females.  Many 
scenes.  Plays  three  hours.  This  is  a  very  strong, 
very  long  and  very  powerful  play  for  amateurs, 
and  should  be  undertaken  only  by  an  experienced 
company.  The  author  has  adopted  the  old  fashion 
of  many  scenes  to  an  act.  The  stage  hands  will 
have  much  work  to  do.  However,  it  is  a  play 


A  LIST  OF  PLAYS  71 

that  pleases  the  people  generally,  by  its  great 
variety  of  character,  and  will  increase  the  reputa- 
tion of  a  good  company.  Price,  25  cents. 

Uncle  Tom's  Cabin. 

Southern  play.  5  acts.  7  males.  5  females.  4 
interiors.  Plays  over  two  hours.  This  is  a  new 
version  of  the  famous  old  play,  and  can  be  easily 
played  by  amateurs.  The  main  parts  of  Uncle 
Tom,  little  Eva,  St.  Clair,  Aunt  Ophelia,  Topsy 
and  Legree,  are  retained,  and  are  set  forth  very 
effectively.  The  story  of  Uncle  Tom  and  little 
Eva  has  a  great  effect  upon  audiences.  Besides, 
the  reputation  once  enjoyed  by  the  play  makes 
people  curious  to  see  it  once.  It  is  therefore  a 
good  drawing-card  for  amateur  companies,  and 
can  be  followed  up  with  the  original  version.  This 
makes  more  of  Lawyer  Marks  and  Gumption 
Cute,  and  of  colored  characters,  and  displays  the 
trip  across  the  icy  river  by  Eliza.  Price,  15  cents. 

Wahnaton. 

Frontier  drama.  4  acts.  9  males.  4  females. 
3  exteriors.  1  interior.  Plays  over  two  hours. 
This  play  is  a  modern  version  of  the  ancient  Nick 
of  the  Woods,  although  this  fact  is  not  mentioned. 
It  is  the  most  thrilling  frontier  play  on  record.  The 
leading  man  plays  three  parts,  all  separate,  and 
unsuspected  till  the  end.  The  siege  of  the  block 
house  and  stockade  is  capital.  The  characters 
are  all  high-colored,  either  very  good  or  very 


72  THE  PARISH  THEATRE 

vicious.  The  scenery  required  is  most  romantic 
Only  a  first-class  company  should  attempt  it  with 
a  first-class  stage  director,  and  all  the  resources  of 
both  should  be  devoted  to  presenting  it  well.  In 
populous  towns  it  should  play  for  several  nights. 
Price,  25  qents. 

Wolsey. 

Romantic  drama.  3  acts.  10  males.  2  females. 
Many  scenes.  Plays  two  hours.  A  costume 
drama  valuable  chiefly  for  its  story,  its  closing 
scene,  and  its  leading  character.  It  offers  good 
material  for  interested  actors,  and  for  pleasing  an 
audience.  The  famous  Cardinal  Wolsey,  travelling 
in  disguise  through  England,  becomes  the  witness 
of  a  crime.  The  heroine  is  accused  of  this  crime, 
is  tried,  and  is  about  to  be  condemned  to  death, 
when  the  great  Cardinal  appears  in  full  regalia 
and  bears  witness  in  her  behalf.  The  effect  upon 
audiences  is  impressive.  Such  a  play  has  a  good 
effect  upon  the  morale  of  parish  actors.  Plays  of 
this  sort  should  be  produced  occasionally.  Price, 
15  cents. 

Village  Lawyer,  The. 

Comedy  drama.  4  acts.  6  males.  5  females.  2 
interiors.  Plays  nearly  three  hours.  A  political 
struggle  is  the  main  theme  of  the  play,  in  which 
the  hero  has  to  fight  the  questionable  methods  of 
his  future  father-in-law.  While  too  long  drawn 
out,  the  play  is  full  of  swing  and  will  give  a  first- 


A  LIST  OF  PLAYS  73 

class  company  fine  opportunity,  in  modern  style. 
Price,  25  cents. 

Whiskers. 

Polite  farce.  1  act.  3  males.  7  females.  1  in- 
terior. Plays  one  hour.  This  amusing  play  will 
suit  almost  any  company,  new  or  old.  It  tells 
the  story  of  an  unfortunate  bridegroom  who  is 
held  up  on  his  wedding  morning  by  a  series  of 
grotesque  accidents.  All  ends  happily,  but  not 
until  he  has  suffered  and  the  audience  has  laughed 
for  an  hour.  The  dresses  of  bride  and  bridesmaids 
offer  the  ladies  the  usual  opportunity  for  produc- 
ing an  impression.  Price,  15  cents. 

PLAYS  FOR  MALE  CHARACTERS 

Christopher  Columbus. 

4  acts.  12  characters.  Costume  play.  Three  acts 
have  scenes  in  and  around  the  Spanish  court,  the 
fourth  is  the  deck  of  a  ship.  The  theme  is  the 
effort  of  Columbus  to  get  a  hearing  at  court,  his 
success,  the  mutiny  at  sea,  and  the  discovery  of 
land.  It  is  sensibly  written,  serious,  with  no  humor, 
but  with  such  vigor  as  to  carry  the  story  well. 
Plays  one  and  a  half  hours.  Price,  25  cents. 

Falsely  Accused. 

4  acts  and  23  scenes.  English  setting.  Old-fashioned 
play,  modern  costume,  easy  to  put  on,  full  of 
spirit  and  incident,  but  requires  a  stage  where 


74  THE  PARISH  THEATRE 

the  scene-shifting  is  easy,  or  the  play  would  go 
on  for  hours.  Its  great  advantage  is  that  with  a 
court  scene  and  any  number  of  supernumeraries, 
it  gives  everybody  a  chance  to  appear,  and  serves 
well  for  training  a  crowd  of  beginners.  If  your 
stage  has  little  scenery,  or  difficulty  in  making 
shifts  quickly,  avoid  it.  Plays  two  hours.  25  cents. 

Vacation. 

Drama.  2  acts.  11  males.  1  exterior.  Plays  one 
hour  and  a  half.  This  play  tells  the  story  of  a 
young  man  falsely  accused  of  stealing.  All  the 
characters  in  the  plot  meet  at  a  camp  in  the 
Maine  woods,  where  the  innocent  man  earns  his 
living  as  a  guide.  By  degrees  his  innocence  is  es- 
tablished, the  real  culprit  is  caught,  and  happiness 
abounds.  Specialties  can  be  introduced  ad  libitum 
and  the  play  made  into  vivacious  entertainment. 
Price,  25  cents. 

Hermigild. 

5  acts.  13  scenes.  16  characters.  This  is  a  tragedy 
in  gorgeous  costume,  and  will  task  an  experienced 
company  to  learn  the  lines  and  to  portray  the 
characters.  College  boys  do  it  very  well,  because 
they  have  good  memories  and  love  scenes  of  strife 
and  eloquence.  The  stage  must  be  large  and  full 
of  scenery,  easily  shifted.  The  mob  scenes  de- 
mand many  supernumeraries.  Weapons  also  are 
in  demand,  and  riots  and  single  encounters  occur, 
with  thunder  and  lightning  in  plenty.  Likely  to 


A  LIST  OF  PLAYS  75 

delight  a  whole  parish.  Plays  three  hours.  25 
cents. 

Making  of  Larry,  The. 

Boy  Scout  play.  2  scenes.  10  characters.  Any 
number  of  scouts  besides.  The  first  scene  is  a 
playground,  the  second  a  camp.  It  is  easy  to  stage 
and  to  costume.  It  can  be  lengthened  by  the  intro- 
duction of  drills  and  songs  and  boy  nonsense  to 
fill  a  whole  evening.  It  is  more  of  an  entertainment 
than  a  play,  but  there  is  a  plot  in  it,  some  develop- 
ment of  character,  a  trifle  patronizing  to  the  Irish, 
but  not  offensive.  25  cents. 

The  Proscribed  Heir. 

3  acts.  9  characters.  Costume  play  of  the  same 
character  as  the  above,  plenty  of  declamation, 
easy  scenery,  the  exterior  and  interior  of  a  village 
inn,  a  good  story  well  carried  out,  and  plenty  of 
emotion.  Like  all  this  class  of  plays  there  is  more 
talk  than  action,  but  enough  action.  The  costumes 
give  it  a  striking  effect,  and  parochial  audiences 
love  to  see  the  young  people  in  costume.  Easy  to 
stage.  Plays  one  and  a  half  hours.  25  cents. 

Riding  the  Goat. 

10  to  20  characters.  A  burlesque  on  the  initiation 
ceremonies  of  secret  societies,  and  apart  from  the 
text,  which  is  very  amusing,  admits  of  the  intro- 
duction of  specialties,  and  any  number  of  charac- 
ters. It  is  useful  in  helping  to  develop  talent  in  a 


76  THE  PARISH  THEATRE 

society  or  new  dramatic  company,  and  pleases  an 
audience  immensely.  It  must  be  lengthened  by 
specialties  to  make  it  a  full  evening's  entertain- 
ment. 25  cents. 

Calvary. 

A  Passion  play.  7  acts.  28  characters.  This  play 
is  not  as  difficult  as  the  number  of  acts  and  char- 
acters would  indicate.  It  was  played  by  the 
parishioners  of  the  Redemptorist  parish  in  Boston. 
The  scenes  are  a  desert,  a  lake  shore,  a  street  in 
Jerusalem,  the  Garden  of  Gethsemane,  the  hall  of 
the  Sanhedrin,  Mount  Olivet,  Pilate's  court,  a 
road,  and  the  hill  of  Calvary.  The  only  difficulty 
is  the  number  of  fine  costumes  required  for  the 
eminent  characters,  and  also  for  the  soldiers. 
Where  played  by  a  capable  and  experienced  com- 
pany the  parts  can  be  doubled,  and  it  thus  be- 
comes an  average  play,  quite  easy  to  produce. 
But  it  must  have  a  good  stage  to  produce  the 
effects  and  the  tableaux.  Plays  three  hours.  25 
cents. 

Prophecy,  The. 

4  acts.  17  characters.  Costume  play  of  the  time 
of  Henry  VIII.  It  is  of  the  same  character  as  the 
other  costume  plays  in  the  list,  full  of  elocution, 
also  of  action,  the  scenery  easy,  the  incidents 
striking  and  dramatic,  with  little  trouble  for  the 
stage  manager.  Plays  two  hours.  25  cents. 


A  LIST  OF  PLAYS  77 

Up  Caesar's  Creek. 

3  acts.  11  characters.  A  regular  boy's  play,  with 
the  first  scene  a  club  room,  the  second  a  camp, 
and  the  third,  a  minstrel  show  in  camp.  It  is 
easy  to  stage,  can  carry  any  number  of  characters 
and  specialties,  and  may  run  from  one  to  three 
hours  at  pleasure.  A  good  stage  manager  can  do 
almost  anything  with  it.  25  cents. 

Under  the  Flag. 

5  acts.  13  characters.  A  model  play  for  young 
men  and  for  The  Parish  Theatre.  The  scenery  is 
easy,  the  costumes  are  modern  but  picturesque, 
the  incidents  are  such  as  thrill  an  amateur  com- 
pany and  hold  the  breathless  interest  of  a  parish 
audience.  There  are  prison  scenes,  execution 
scenes,  single  combats,  soldiers  and  peasants  and 
priests,  all  welded  together  in  melodramatic  style, 
such  as  the  people  love.  While  the  usual  love  ele- 
ment is  absent,  it  is  nevertheless  a  factor  in  the 
drama.  Plays  two  hours.  25  cents. 

The  main  fault  of  the  above  plays  for  males  is  that 
they  were  written  for  college  lads  by  their  professors, 
and  have  more  costume  and  elocution  in  them  than 
incident  and  action.  Whether  they  reach  the  average 
parochial  audience  is  a  question,  but  as  the  story  in 
each  is  good,  and  the  setting  of  the  stage  fine,  they  will 
at  least  serve  to  train  boys  and  young  men  for  sound 
dramatic  work. 


78  THE  PARISH  THEATRE 

PLAYS  FOR  FEMALE  CHARACTERS 
Dolores. 

2  acts.  5  scenes.  15  characters.  Plays  two  hours. 
A  mild-mannered  drama  of  two  sisters,  a  cold- 
hearted  mother,  and  various  other  characters.  It 
is  easy  to  stage  and  costume,  and  is  liked  by  coun- 
try audiences,  chiefly  for  its  emotional  side.  There 
is  one  male  character,  which  can  easily  be  played 
by  a  robust  girl.  A  good  play  for  beginners.  Price, 
50  cents. 

Milkmaids'  Convention. 

A  burlesque  entertainment  in  one  act  for  any 
number  of  characters.  By  introducing  specialties 
may  be  made  to  last  two  hours.  A  good  vehicle 
for  amusing  a  club,  or  training  young  actors  in 
dramatic  work.  Price,  25  cents. 

Mystic  Rose,  The,  or  Pilate's  Daughter. 

The  well-known  Passion  Play,  produced  by  the 
Redemptorist  parish  in  Boston  for  years  as  a 
Lenten  devotion.  5  acts.  24  characters.  Easy  to 
present,  but  demands  excellent  scenery  and  cos- 
tuming, and  will  take  a  long  time  to  get  into 
shape.  Price,  50  cents. 

Old  Maids'  Association. 

A  burlesque  entertainment  in  one  act.  15  to  50 
characters.  May  be  made  short  or  long  at  will. 
Like  its  neighbor  in  this  list,  good  for  club  show  or 


A  LIST  OF  PLAYS  79 

for  a  general  audience,  and  for  the  training  of 
young  actors.  Price,  25  cents. 

Olga. 

Domestic  drama.  5  scenes.  2  males.  13  females. 
Although  written  by  an  amateur  dramatist,  this 
play  interests  an  audience  by  its  story.  It  provides 
beginners  with  a  vehicle  for  training.  Easy  to 
costume  and  to  present.  Plays  one  hour  and  a 
half.  Price,  25  cents. 

Revolt,  The. 

A  farce.  1  act.  8  characters.  Plays  one  hour. 
An  amusing  skit  on  the  modern  woman,  her 
battle  for  supremacy,  and  the  ancient  woman's 
school  for  domestic  science  and  virtue.  Price,  25 
cents. 

School  of  Sorrow,  The. 

Costume  drama.  4  acts.  16  characters.  Scenes 
are  of  New  York  City  in  the  period  of  Washing- 
ton's presidency.  Martha  Washington  and  Mrs. 
Carroll  of  Carrollton  are  characters.  The  story  is 
like  that  of  The  Two  Orphans,  one  sister  a  blind 
beggar,  lost  and  helpless  in  the  slums,  the  other 
seeking  her  everywhere.  A  model  drama  for 
capable  amateur  actors  and  easy  to  present, 
except  that  the  costuming  must  be  well  done. 
Time,  two  hours.  Price,  25  cents. 

Woman's  Convention,  Punkville,  TI.  S.  A. 

Another   burlesque   entertainment   of   the   same 


80  THE  PARISH  THEATRE 

character  as  those  above,  may  be  made  short  or 
long,  any  number  of  characters,  and  funnier  than 
most  plays  of  this  kind.  Price,  25  cents. 

Wanted,  a  Maid. 

Comedy.  3  acts.  10  characters.  A  very  good  play 
of  its  kind,  and  will  demand  the  best  from  a  com- 
pany, without  overweighting  them.  Plays  one 
hour  and  a  half.  Price,  25  cents. 

Rosemary. 

A  drama  in  4  acts.  14  characters.  1  scene  for  the 
four  acts,  either  plain  or  elaborate.  The  cast 
includes  two  Southern  girls,  a  prim  Boston  ma- 
tron, a  colored  Mammy,  an  Irish  maid,  and  a  pair 
of  twins,  and  therefore  gives  plenty  of  scope  for 
character  acting.  Plays  one  hour  and  a  half.  May 
be  lengthened  by  specialties.  A  charming  play 
for  girls.  Price,  25  cents. 

FARCES 

Brian  O'Linn. 

A  genuine  Irish  farce.  2  acts.  7  males.  4  females. 
Written  forty  years  ago,  but  as  fresh  today  as 
then.  Its  riotous  humor  endears  it  to  parish 
audiences;  but  players  will  have  to  be  careful  not 
to  offend  modern  Irish  sentiment,  which  in  many 
places  rejects  the  wild  fun  of  writers  like  Lover 
and  Lever,  on  the  ground  that  it  misrepresents 
the  Irish.  This  piece  may  be  lengthened  to  fill 


A  LIST  OF  PLAYS  81 

out  a  whole  evening.  In  its  present  form  it  plays 
about  one  hour.  Price,  15  cents. 

Freezing  a  Mother-in-Law. 

Polite  farce.  1  act.  3  males.  2  females.  Plays 
about  an  hour.  An  unusually  entertaining  play, 
suitable  for  average  actors,  and  certain  to  be  en- 
joyed by  the  parish  audience.  A  new  invention 
for  throwing  cattle  into  a  state  of  suspended 
animation  is  tried  upon  the  old  lady  with  great 
success  apparently.  She  is  frozen  stiff,  placed  in 
a  closet,  and  left  there  while  the  family  enjoys  an 
hour  of  cheerful  freedom.  The  denouement  is  both 
funny  and  painful.  Price,  15  cents. 

Fun  in  a  Photograph  Gallery. 

Farcical  entertainment  for  any  number  of  charac- 
ters. While  amusing  an  audience  it  will  serve  as 
a  vehicle  for  young  actors.  Can  be  lengthened  or 
shortened  at  pleasure.  Simple  scenery  and  cos- 
tumes. Price,  15  cents. 

Handy  Andy. 

Irish  farce  in  2  acts.  10  males.  3  females.  It  is 
written  in  old-fashioned  style,  and  has  too  many 
scenes  to  an  act;  but  this  defect  can  be  remedied 
by  an  expert  stage  director.  The  costuming 
should  be  good.  It  is  not  a  play  for  the  inexperi- 
enced. In  spite  of  its  age  has  a  stronger  appeal 
to  parish  audiences  than  any  modern  farce.  Time, 
nearly  two  hours.  Price,  15  cents. 


82  THE  PARISH  THEATRE 

Hotel  Half-Back. 

Eccentric  farce.  1  scene.  8  characters.  Plays  one 
hour.  May  be  lengthened  by  introducing  spe- 
cialties. An  ingenious,  funny,  tricky  play,  full  of 
surprises,  good  for  a  club,  or  as  a  curtain-raiser, 
but  demanding  good  players  and  thorough  re- 
hearsals. Price,  15  cents. 

The  Private  Secretary. 

Polite  farce.  3  acts.  9  males.  4  females.  Plays 
two  hours.  Royalty  play.  Modern  costume.  The 
most  successful  farce  of  modern  times.  Clean, 
serious,  and  so  funny  that  people  get  ill  from 
laughing.  Demands  a  fine  company  of  amateur 
actors,  and  plenty  of  rehearsal.  Should  not  be 
attempted  by  any  others.  Price,  50  cents. 

What  Happened  to  Jones. 

Polite  farce.  3  acts.  7  males.  6  females.  Plays 
two  and  a  half  hours.  It  is  of  the  same  character 
as  the  preceding.  Demands  a  good  company, 
with  plenty  of  rehearsal.  Modern  costume.  Easy 
to  stage.  Almost  the  funniest  farce  written.  A 
royalty  play.  Price,  50  cents. 

MUSICAL  FARCES 

Buttermilk  Hollow  Surprise  Party. 

Entertainment  in  one  act.  25  characters  and  more 
if  desired.  Plays  as  long  as  wanted.  Country 
costumes  of  the  simplest  kind,  room  for  all  kinds 
of  specialties,  with  dialogue  enough  to  go  through 


A  LIST  OF  PLAYS  83 

an  evening.  A  splendid  vehicle  for  clubs  and  for 
training  young  actors.  Price,  25  cents. 

Deestrick  Skule. 

Entertainment  of  the  same  sort.  Seven  grown-ups 
and  any  number  of  children.  Introduction  of 
specialties.  Suitable  for  a  school,  a  club,  or  a 
dramatic  company.  Price,  25  cents. 

Indian  Days. 

A  tuneful  farce  in  one  act.  5  characters,  any  num- 
ber in  the  chorus.  Indian  costumes.  Leading 
actors  must  be  singers.  Plays  about  an  hour,  but 
can  be  easily  drawn  out  to  two.  The  leading 
lady  is  named  Pocahontas  McGuigan  McGuire, 
and  is  supposed  to  be  of  Irish  blood.  Care  must 
be  taken  to  avoid  offence  to  sensitive  Irish  people, 
who  object  altogether  to  burlesquing  Irish  char- 
acters. An  amusing  and  picturesque  sketch  with- 
out thought  of  harm  in  it.  Price,  50  cents. 

In  the  Ferry  House. 

The  scene  requires  a  drop  and  appurtenances  pe- 
culiar to  the  entrance  to  a  ferry.  Any  number 
of  characters,  and  more  may  be  added.  Under 
a  good  manager  this  sketch  may  be  made  a  most 
uproarious  farce,  and  will  give  both  audience  and 
actors  an  amusing  two  hours.  Price,  25  cents. 

Jayville  Junction. 

An  entertainment  of  same  character  as  the  Ferry 
House.  The  scene  is  a  railroad  depot  interior, 


84  THE  PARISH  THEATRE 

with  trains  late.  28  characters,  among  them  the 
station  agent,  the  baggage  man,  the  train  caller, 
the  porter,  and  the  lunch  counter  girl;  the  travel- 
lers are  actors,  college  boys,  farmers,  drummers, 
and  a  bridal  pair,  along  with  others.  While  the 
fun  is  constant,  there  is  much  of  the  ordinary  life 
about  a  junction  station,  and  this  affords  place 
for  sentiment.  The  play  makes  a  splendid  vehicle 
for  training  actors.  Plays  any  length  of  time. 
Price,  25  cents. 

Rustic  Minstrel  Show. 

11  characters.  Plays  any  length  of  time  desired. 
This  is  a  variation  of  the  colored  minstrel  show, 
in  which  the  characters  are  of  various  nationalities, 
and  the  chorus  is  composed  of  haymakers.  It  is 
funny,  easy  to  produce,  and  picturesque.  Price, 
25  cents. 

Rustic  Romeo. 

A  musical  farce.  2  acts.  20  characters.  One  of 
the  best,  perhaps  the  best,  of  its  kind.  Written 
for  amateurs  specially,  with  knowledge  of  their 
needs.  Full  of  fun,  with  music,  movement,  and 
makes  a  fine  impression  on  audiences.  Easy  to 
produce,  rich  in  color,  and  requires  good  rehears- 
ing. Two  hours.  Price,  50  cents. 

Trial  by  Jury. 

Gilbert  and  Sullivan's  famous  comic  opera,  in 
one  act.  22  characters.  One  of  the  finest  shows 


A  LIST  OF  PLAYS  85 

for  clubs.  An  amorous  judge  and  susceptible 
jury,  two  lawyers,  a  court  official,  the  defendant, 
and  the  plaintiff  and  her  maids,  fill  the  court 
scene  wonderfully,  and  make  enough  fun  for  any 
audience.  Plays  over  an  hour,  can  be  lengthened 
with  specialties,  owns  finish  and  elegance,  but 
must  be  rehearsed  with  care. Price,  one  dollar. 


READY  REFERENCE  LIST 


ONE  AND  Two  ACT  PLAYS 

A.  Hrs.  M.  F. 

Andy  Blake.    Irish  Comedy.    Costume 2     1J  4  3 

Bishop's  Candlesticks,  The.     Costume 1       1  3  2 

Everyman.     Morality  play.     Costume 1      2  16  2 

Everyyouth.     Morality  play 1       2  7  6 

Everysoul.     Morality  play 1      2  10  7 

The  King's  Threshold,  On.    Poetic  Irish  drama.  1      2  12  4 

Mary,  Queen  of  Scots.     Costume 2      2  7  7 

Rip  Van  Winkle.     Costume 2      2  8  3 

Whiskers.    Polite  farce 1      1J  3  7 

THREE  ACT  PLAYS 

Bill  the  Coachman.    Polite  farce 2  5  4 

Burley's  Ranch.     Cowboy  and  military 3  10  4 

Colleen  Bawn,  The.     Irish  romantic 3  8  6 

Country  Kid,  A.     Rural 263 

Enlisted  for  the  War.     Military 3  7  3 

End  of  the  Rainbow.     College 2J  6  14 

Erin  Go  Bragh.     Irish  romantic 2  5  4 

Four-Leaved  Shamrock.     Irish  comedy 2  3  4 

Heart  of  a  Shamrock.     Irish  modern 2  4  4 

In  the  Shadow  of  the  Rockies.     Miners 2  8  3 

Just  Plain  Folks.     New  England  domestic 2  j  6  4 

Little  Lord  Fauntleroy.     High  society 3  8  3 

Little  Princess,  The 3  6  15 

87 


88  READY  REFERENCE  LIST 

Hrs.  M.  F. 

New  Partner,  The.    Labor  and  capital 3  8  4 

Oak  Farm.     Domestic 2J  7  3 

Pottersville  Postoffice,  At  the.     Rural 2  9  8 

Robert  Emmet.     Irish  historical.     Costume ....  2  10  2 

Stubborn  Motor  Car,  The.     Western  mining ...  2  J  7  4 

Shaun  Aroon.     Irish  modern 2  7  3 

Time  of  His  Life,  The.     Polite  farce 2  6  3 

Tompkins'  Hired  Man.     Rural  domestic 2  4  4 

Wolsey.    Historical.    Costume 2  10  2 

FOUR  ACT  PLAYS 

Along  the  Missouri.    Western  rural 3  6  3 

Corner  Store,  The.     Rural 2J  6  3 

Down  the  Black  Canon.     Miners 2  11  3 

Dust  of  the  Earth,  The.     Rural 2J  6  4 

FarmFolks.    Rural 2J  4  7 

Frozen  Trail,  The.    Alaskan 2J  8  3 

Home  Ties.     Domestic 2J  4  5 

Hazel  Kirke.     High  society 3  9  4 

In  Plum  Valley.     Rural 2  6  4 

Kathleen  Mavourneen.     Irish  romantic 2J  11  4 

Liberty  Corners.     Rural  and  humorous 3  12  5 

Mountain  Waif,  The.     Mining  camp 2}  9  3 

Miss  Mosher  of  Colorado.    High  society 2  5  3 

Noble  Outcast,  A.     High  society 2 J  4  3 

Prisoner  of  Andersonville.     Military 2J  10  4 

Uncle  Rube.    Rural 2J  8  3 

Up  Vermont  Way.     Rural 3  8  4 

Wahnaton.     Frontier  Indian 2J  9  4 

Village  Lawyer,  The.    Domestic 2|  6  5 

FIVE  ACT  PLAYS 

Celebrated  Case,  A.     Costume  and  court 3  7  5 

Deacon,  The.    Rural 2J  8  6 


READY  REFERENCE  LIST  89 

A.  Hrs.     M.     P. 

Experience.     Morality  play.    Costume 3     10      8 

Fabiola.     Christian  Martyr 3      8      6 

Lone  Tree  Mine.     Mining  camp 3     10      4 

Man  from  Maine,  The.     Criminals 2J    9      3 

Octoroon,  The.     Southern  slave 2J  14      6 

Richelieu.     Costume  and  court 3      8      2 

Roses  of  St.  Dorothy.     Costume  religious 245 

Uncle  Tom's  Cabin.    Southern  slave 2J    7      5 

PLAYS  FOB  MALES 

Christopher  Columbus.     Historical.     Costume . .  4  H  12 

Falsely  Accused.     English  modern 4  2     25 

Hermigild.    Costume  religious 5  3     16 

Making  of  Larry,  The.     Boy  Scout 2  1J  10 

Proscribed  Heir,  The.     Costume 3  1J    9 

Riding  the  Goat.     Burlesque  initiation 1  1     10 

Calvary.    A  Passion  play.     Costume 7  3    28 

Prophesy,  The.    Costume 4  2     17 

Up  Caesar's  Creek.   Club  and  camp  minstrels ..  3  1J  11 

Under  the  Flag,     Military  Cuban 5  2^  13 

Vacation.    Camp  play 2  If  11 

PLAYS  FOR  FEMALES 

Dolores.    Easy  domestic  comedy 2  If          15 

Milkmaids'  Convention.     Burlesque 1  2            25 

Mystic  Rose,  The.    Passion  play.    Costume ...  5  3            24 

Old  Maids'  Association.    Burlesque 1  2            25 

Olga.     Domestic  drama 5  2            15 

Revolt,  The.    Polite  farce 1  1              8 

Rosemary.     Domestic  play 4  1  \          14 

School  of  Sorrow,  The.     Costume  drama 4  2            16 

Wanted,  A  Maid.     Comedy 3  1J          10 

Woman's  Convention  at  Punkville.    Burlesque  .12  25 


90  READY  REFERENCE  LIST 

FARCES 


Brian  O'Linn.    Irish  

A. 

2 

Hrs. 
IT 

M. 

7 

F. 
4 

Charlie's  Aunt.     Modern  

Freezing  a  Mother-in-law.     Modern  

1 

1 

3 

2 

FT  in  in  a  Photograph  Gallery.     Sketch  

1 

2 

10 

10 

Handy  Andy.     Noted  Irish  farce  

1 

10 

3 

Hotel  Half-back.     Modern  eccentric 

1 

1 

8 

2 

Private  Secretary,  The.    Polite  English  

3 

fll 

9 

4 

What  Happened  to  Jones.    Polite  American.  .  . 

MUSICAL  FARCE 
Buttermilk  Hollow  Surprise  party  , 

.  3 
1 

2J 

?, 

7 
10 

6 
10 

Deestrick  Skule,  The.     An  exhibition  

1 

?, 

11 

q 

Indian  Days.     Burlesque  Indian  Irish 

1 

?! 

10 

8 

In  the  Ferry  House.     Eccentric  sketch  

1 

10 

10 

Jayville  Junction.     Eccentric  sketch  

1 

2 

15 

13 

Rustic  Minstrel  Show 

1 

?, 

10 

5 

Rustic  Romeo                   

?, 

10 

10 

Trial  by  Jury  

1 

1J 

17 

Any  of  these  plays  may  be  obtained  from 

Dick  &  Fitzgerald,  16  Vesey  St.,  New  York  City. 
Samuel  French,  28  West  38th  St.,  New  York  City. 
Dramatic  Publishing  Co.,  542  So.  Dearborn  St.,  Chicago. 


PRESS  OF 

BRAUNWORTH  &  CO. 

BOOK  MANUFACTURERS 

BROOKLYN,  N.  Y. 


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